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The 

One Hundred and Five 
Martyrs of Tyburn 




BX 
1492 
.19 
1917 



IMST 




By the 
ns of Tyburn (Convent 




/ 



LIBRARY 







\ 




The One Hundred and Five 
Martyrs of Tyburn 






PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY 
THE WESTMINSTER PRESS, LONDON, W. 




f)e IBeneDictme 9po0tle0 anD 

of OEnglartD, 



Copyright, St. Bride's Abbey, Milford Haven 



The One Hundred and 
Five Martyrs of Tyburn 

By the Nuns of Tyburn Convent 

With an Introduction by 
Dom BEDE CAMM, O.S.B. 



BURNS & GATES, LTD. 

28 Orchard Street ' 
London, W 

1917 ; 



Yltbtl &stat : 

H. S. BOWDEN, 

Censor Deputatus. 

Imprimatur : 

EDM. CAN. SURMONT, 

Vic. Gen. 



Westmonasterii, die 8 Februarii, 1917. 



i 3 1999 



This little book is gratefully dedicated to the 
Founders and Benefactors of Tyburn. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction by Dom Bede Camm, O.S.B. 9 
Short Biographies of the One Hundred and 

Five Martyrs 13 
Small Guide for a Visit to the Oratory of the 

English Martyrs 83 

List of Relics 91 

Some Notes on Tyburn Convent 96 
The Vow made by the Community of Tyburn 

for the Conversion of England 102 



INTRODUCTION 

THE Oratory of the English Martyrs has 
become a Shrine that is verydear to many 
devout pilgrims. Though it is only a tem- 
porary one, housed in a room which is far from 
being worthy of its hallowed memories, it has 
yet a character and dignity of its own which 
appeals to the heart and stimulates the imagina- 
tion. 

It is now some years since a few devoted 
friends of Tyburn took it upon them to decorate 
and enrich this little Shrine, so that it might 
tell more vividly the story of those great souls 
who consecrated this soil with their blood. 

It was a Benedictine monk who first con- 
ceived the idea of overshadowing the altar of 
sacrifice with a presentiment of the Triple Tree 
of Tyburn, the Holy Rood of this our English 
Calvary. It was another Benedictine who 
carried out his ideas, designed the Tree with 
its pendant lamps, the altar reredos and orna- 
ments which make so strong an appeal to the 
lovers of our Martyrs. Not only this, but the 
work itself was carried out in the Benedictine 

B 



io INTRODUCTION 

workshops at Maredsous, by sons of that 
Belgian Mother then on the very threshold of 
her Martyrdom. The statues of our Martyrs, 
the lace-like carving of the canopies (adopted 
from a famous rood-loft in Devonshire), the 
brazen lamps, the rich palm-embroidered hang- 
ings, are all the work of hands belonging to a 
country which has since grasped the martyrs' 
palm. It was thought at the time that it was not 
inappropriate that Belgian hands should work 
to the glory of those who had found on Belgian 
soil a place of refuge in persecution, a school of 
training for the priesthood and the crown. But 
how much more deeply appropriate does it seem 
to us now ! 

It was a Benedictine Oblate who, in generous 
and devoted love for the Martyrs of Tyburn, 
furnished the necessary funds, at the cost of 
great self-sacrifice, for Tree, Altar, windows, 
reliquaries, and the rest. Benedictine Abbeys 
gave of the treasures of holy relics to enrich the 
Shrine with the most precious of all gifts. A 
Benedictine monk collected them from many 
places, where they had long been cherished, 
and Benedictine Nuns it was who enshrined 
them in their present resting-places, and adorned 
them with the skilled labour of their hands. 

And thus the older branches of the Order 



INTRODUCTION n 

have helped to beautify this lowly Shrine, which 
is confided to the care of the youngest, but not 
the least worthy, of the many religious families 
who own St. Benedict as Father and Patriarch. 

Those who visit this Sanctuary are asked to 
pray for the Benefactors who have done their 
part in the work, and they are requested also 
to give their offerings towards the building of 
the new and glorious Sanctuary which some 
day must replace this little lowly Shrine. 

The present altar ornaments and stained 
glass will all be retained in the new Chapel, 
and will show to far greater advantage than 
they can in their present cramped surround- 
ings. 

Would it not be a seemly and beautiful me- 
morial to our glorious dead, who have fallen in the 
present war if, in the very heart of London, a 
sanctuary of unceasing prayer should be raised 
to the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 
memory of the Martyrs of England ? Here at 
Tyburn the martyrs of the olden times would 
clasp hands with their heroic sons of to-day, and 
around the Throne of the Eucharistic Lamb 
would rise unceasingly from the alternate choirs 
of that white-robed host, the hymn of triumph 
and victory, the Warriors' song of peace. 

Thus the memories of the crusaders of 



12 INTRODUCTION 

Gallipoli and the Egyptian desert and of the 
heroes of French and Flemish battlefields would 
be linked for ever with the fadeless glory of the 
martyrs who won their palms at Tyburn Tree. 
Their names, inscribed on the walls of the 
sanctuary, would go down to future ages linked 
inseparably with the names, still more glorious, 
of those who taught them how to die. And the 
Chapel of the English Martyrs would remain 
an imperishable record of the heroes of the 
Twentieth as of the Sixteenth Century.'" 

This is but a dream at present, but one that 
under God's Providence may yet become a reality. 

Meanwhile let pilgrims learn at Tyburn that 
love is stronger than death, and sacrifice more 
fruitful than possession. 

DOM BEDE CAMM, O.S.B., C.F., 

3 IST GENERAL HOSPITAL, 
PORT SAID, EGYPT. 
August, 2o//>, 1916. 



*In linking the names of the heroes of the present 
war with those of the English Martyrs, it is not 
meant to imply that our glorious dead are martyrs in 
the technical sense of " dying for the Faith," but 
that they sacrificed their lives for the principle of 
liberty, justice, patriotism, and religion, consider- 
ing their cause the cause of God. 



The 105 Martyrs of Tyburn 

26 Beatified 79 Venerable. 

Benedictines Venerable 7 

Carthusians Beatified 7 

Bridgettine i 

Franciscans 3 

Dominican i 

Jesuits Beatified 5 

Venerable 14 

Secular Priests Beatified 1 1 

Venerable 33 

Laymen Beatified 2 

Venerable 18 

Gentlewomen Venerable 2 

And the last Tyburn Martyr 

Archbishop Venerable i 

Total 10 ; 



14 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

JANUARY IITH, 1584. 
YEN. WILLIAM CARTER, Layman. 

HE was a Londoner, and a Printer and Book- 
seller by profession. Zeal for the dissemination 
of Catholic truth was the cause of his martyr- 
dom. A series of imprisonments interrupted his 
work, but as soon as he recovered liberty he 
returned to the task of spreading literature for 
the exhortation and comfort of his fellow 
Catholics. This he achieved with great diffi- 
culty owing to the extreme danger of the times, 
and it is said that his Printing Press was so small 
that he could hardly print more than one page 
at a time, while some books he copied entirely 
by hand. He was held in high esteem by his 
friends, and one of the reasons why he was so 
cruelly racked when finally arrested, was that 
he had been entrusted with the custody of 
Chalices and Vestments whose owners he 
refused to betray. At the trial, the chief accusa- 
tion against him was that he had instigated the 
Queen's enemies (Catholic Englishwomen) to 
murder their Sovereign. A Treatise on Schism, 
the book for the printing of which he was con- 
demned, contained a paragraph about Judith 
and " Holofernes, the master heretic," and 
this it was affirmed was only a paraphrase 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 15 

indicating Elizabeth. While the jury retired to 
confer on the verdict, Carter availed himself of the 
opportunity of confessing to a priest who was 
waiting like him for the death sentence. The 
day following his trial, William Carter was 
dragged to Tyburn and there hanged and quar- 
tered. 

JANUARY 21 ST, 1586. 

YEN. EDWARD STRANCHAM, Secular 
Priest. 

YEN. NICHOLAS WOODFEN, or WHEE- 
LER, Secular Priest. 

THE first of these Martyrs was an Oxford man, 
both born and bred. Shortly after taking his 
Bachelor's degree at St. John's College, he 
became a convert to the Catholic Faith and 
went over to Douai to study for the priesthood. 
He returned to England in 1581, together with 
NICHOLAS WOODFEN. The latter was 
born at Leinster. His true name was Wheeler. 
While lodging in Fleet Street he ministered 
under his assumed name to the gentlemen of 
the Inns of Court, whose manner of dress he 
adopted. After enduring much poverty and 
persecution for five years, both priests were 
put to death with great barbarity on the same 
day. 



16 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

January 2ist, 1642. 

VEN. BARTHOLOMEW ALBAN ROE, 
Priest, O.S.B. 

VEN. THOMAS GREEN, or REYNOLDS, 
Secular Priest. 

THE Benedictine Monk, known in religion as 
FATHER ALBAN, was born in Suffolk and 
brought up as a Protestant. All his life he was 
full of zeal, and it was in the attempt to refute 
the 'errors' of a man imprisoned at St. 
Alban's for holding the Catholic Faith that he 
received the initial grace of his own conversion. 
After this interview, in which his adversary 
gained the victory, he was never at peace until 
he found himself in the safe port of the True 
Church. Having entered the Benedictine Order 
in Lorraine, he prepared himself with assiduity 
to exercise the apostolate in England. He spent 
a great part of his life in prison, once in Maiden 
Lane, afterwards at St. Alban's, whence he was 
removed to the Fleet Prison, where he remained 
for seventeen years. He never lost his dauntless 
gaiety, and amid his many and severe sufferings 
of mind and body he never ceased to labour for 

i 

souls. 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 17 

YEN. THOMAS REYNOLDS was born in 
Oxford, and studied abroad for the sake of the 
Catholic Religion no longer tolerated in his own 
country. He returned after receiving Holy 
Orders, and, passing through many vicissitudes, 
he was condemned to death at the advanced 
age of eighty years, fifty of which he had spent 
in the ministry of the priesthood. His com- 
panion in martyrdom, Father Alban Roe, met 
him with a cheerful countenance before the 
hurdle that was to convey them both to Tyburn. 
The two martyrs made their confessions to each 
other and recited the " Miserere ' alternately. 
' Friend, pray let all be secure and do thy duty 
neatly, I have been a neat man all my life/' the 
old priest said to the executioner. ' I dare 
look death in the face," said Father Roe, when 
they would have bound his eyes. 

JANUARY 22ND, 1592. 
YEN. WILLIAM PATENSON, Secular Priest. 

HE was a native of Durham and became an 
alumnus and priest of Douai College during 
its residence at Rheims, and was sent on the 
English mission a year after his ordination. 
He came to London to seek counsel in 
order to rid himself of the scruples of con- 
science with which he was troubled. On the 



i8 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

third Sunday in Advent, 1591, the house where 
he was staying was searched by constables and 
churchwardens and sidesmen of the Protestant 
Parish Church with the object of finding which 
of the inmates did not attend the services. 
Father Patenson was seized and condemned 
at the first session held after Christmas. The 
night before his execution he was put into the 
" condemned hole " with seven malefactors who 
were to suffer with him on the following day. 
He converted six of them and helped them to 
make their peace with God. The persecutors 
were so enraged at the profession of the Catholic 
Faith they made on the scaffold, and the con- 
stancy with which they accepted an ignomin- 
ious death in satisfaction for their past crimes, 
that the Martyr was treated with more than 
usual barbarity. 



JANUARY 241*1, 1679. 

YEN. WILLIAM IRELAND, Priest, SJ. 
YEN. JOHN GROVE, Layman. 

YEN. W. IRELAND was born in Lincolnshire 
and brought up at St. Omer's. He entered the 
Society of Jesus at the age of 19. He had the re- 
putation of possessing a wonderful calm and 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 19 

evenness of mind on all occasions. On return- 
ing to England, he was apprehended on the first 
breaking out of the Titus Gates Plot, and suf- 
fered much from the loathsomeness of the prison 
and the weight of his iron chains. He was 
brought to trial with several others, including 
JOHN GROVE, a layman employed as a 
servant by the English Jesuits in their business 
about town. 

Oates and Bedloe swore that Father Ireland 
had been present at a consultation held in August 
for killing the King, although the priest brought 
many to witness he was in Staffordshire at the 
time. Oates and Bedloe also swore that Grove 
was appointed to shoot the King, for which deed 
he was to receive a preposterous amount of 
money. On Friday, the 24th of January, the 
martyrs were drawn from Newgate to Tyburn, 
and were abused and pelted by the mob all the 
way. They endured every insult with cheerful 
patience, and died forgiving those who were 
guilty of their blood, and praying for their King 
and Country. 



20 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

FEBRUARY IST, 1645. 
YEN. HENRY MORSE, Priest, SJ. 

BORN in Suffolk in the year 1595, he was recon- 
ciled to the Church at the age of twenty- three, 
and received Holy Orders at Douai. Being sent 
on the English Mission, he was at once cap- 
tured, and imprisoned for three years among 
felons and malefactors. This prison was at the 
same time his place of novitiate. He there 
prepared himself to become a Jesuit, and a 
priest of the Society who was also in prison 
assisted him as a novice master. Ven. Henry 
Morse was twice banished from the kingdom, 
but found means to return and devote himself 
to the service of poor Catholics in the time of 
the Plague. He was charged with " perverting >: 
560 Protestants in one Parish alone. 

On the morning of his martyrdom he cele- 
brated the votive Mass of the Blessed Trinity 
in thanksgiving for the great favour God was 
pleased to grant him a favour he had besought 
for thirty years having first, according to his 
custom, recited the Litanies of Our Lady and 
the Saints for the conversion of England. When 
he was admonished that his time was come, he 
knelt down and offered himself without reserve 
as a sacrifice to the Divine Majesty and in 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 21 

reparation for the sins of his nation. He welcomed 
death, saying : ' Come, my sweetest Jesus, 
that I may now be inseparably united to Thee 
in time and in eternity. Welcome ropes, hurdles, 
gibbets, knives and butchery ! welcome for the 
love of Jesus my Saviour ! ' 



FEBRUARY 3RD, 1578. 
BLESSED JOHN NELSON, Priest, S.J. 

THIS martyr was born at Shelton, near York. 
He was arrested on suspicion late one evening 
when saying Matins. The Oath of the Queen's 
supremacy was offered to him, but he refused 
to take it, saying that the Pope's Holiness was 
the Head of the Church " to whom that supreme 
authority on earth was due, as being Christ's 
Vicar, and the lawful successor of St. Peter." 
When sentence was pronounced against him, 
he never changed countenance, but prepared 
himself with a good countenance to die. By 
God's special providence, he received ' the 
Sacred Viaticum the day before he was arraigned. 
Arrived at Tyburn, he turned to the people, 
saying : ' I call you all this day to witness that 
I die in the unity of the Catholic Church, and 
for that unity do now most willingly suffer my 
blood to be shed ; and therefore I beseech God, 



22 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

and request you all to pray for the same, that it 
would please God of His great mercy to make 
you, and all others that are not such already, true 
Catholic men. ... 'He then besought all who 
were of the like Faith to pray with him " that 
Christ, by the merits of His bitter Passion, 
would receive his soul into everlasting joy." 
He was cut down when only half dead. As 
his heart was plucked out he was heard to 
murmur : ' I forgive the Queen and all that 
were causers of my death." 

FEBRUARY 7TH, 1578. 
BLESSED THOMAS SHERWOOD, Layman. 

HE was born in London, and was one of a large 
family. He had returned from Douai in order 
to arrange with his father about remaining at 
the seminary, and was one day talking in Chan- 
cery Lane when the cry was raised, " Stop the 
traitor ! " It was the unworthy son of a Catholic 
lady with whom he was staying who thus be- 
trayed him. Having replied to the question put 
to him that he believed the Holy Father to be 
the Head of the Church, the young seminarist 
was sent to prison on a charge of high treason. 
In the vain attempt to force him to reveal where 
and by whom he had heard Mass said, he was 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 23 

taken to the Tower to be cruelly racked. The 
only words which escaped him were : ' Lord 
Jesus, I am not worthy that I should suffer 
these things for Thee, much less am I worthy 
of those rewards which Thou hast promised to 
give to such as confess Thee." He was then 
thrown into a dungeon under the banks of the 
Thames, among the rats, where he endured 
hunger and cold for three winter months. 

On the Eve of Candlemas, Sherwood was tried 
and found guilty of denying the royal supremacy, 
and the barbarous sentence was passed. He is 
described as small, and he looked much younger 
than his twenty-seven years ; ' being of his 
nature very meek and gentle." 

FEBRUARY IZTH, 1584. 

YEN. JAMES FENN, Secular Priest. , 
YEN. GEORGE HAYDOCK, Secular Priest. 

YEN. THOMAS HAMERFORD, Secular 
Priest. 

YEN. JOHN MUNDEN, Secular Priest. 
YEN. JOHN NUTTER, Secular Priest. 

ON the Feast of St. Peter's Chains, these 
prisoners of Christ were accounted worthy to 
hear the death sentence passed on them for 
upholding the primacy of Peter. 



24 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

JAMES FENN was born at Montacute, in 
Somersetshire. He made his studies at Oxford, 
at New College and Corpus Christi College. 
On the death of his wife he became a Seminary 
Priest. A moving scene took place at the Tower 
Gate after he was bound on the hurdle ; his 
little daughter Frances, with many tears, came 
to take her last leave of him and receive his 
blessing, which he gave her with difficulty, 
striving to raise his manacled hands. 

GEORGE HAYDOCK, the son of the 
Squire of Cottamhall, near Preston, Lancashire 
was the youngest of the five martyr priests, 
being only twenty-four years old when 
he suffered. In answer to the questions 
put by the minister, he said that if he and 
the Queen were alone in some desert place 
where he could do to her what he would he 
would not so much as prick her with a pin : 
" No, not to gain the whole world, and," he 
added, " I beg and beseech all Catholics to pray 
together with me to our common Lord for me 
and for our Country's weal." 

YEN. THOMAS HAMERFORD and YEN. 
JOHN MUNDEN welcomed death with great 
fortitude. Father Munden acknowledged his 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 25 

sentence by joyfully reciting the * Te Deum." 
They were both natives of Dorset. 

YEN. JOHN NUTTER was born in Lancas- 
shire. He won for himself the name " John of 
Plain Dealing ' from his fellow prisoners for 
his outspokenness in rebuking vice. He is said 
to have been timid by nature, but he now met 
a most cruel death with no less courage and 
constancy than his companions. 



FEBRUARY 17111, 1603. 

VEN. WILLIAM RICHARDSON, Secular 
Priest. 

HE was born in Yorkshire, and was a priest of 
the seminaries of Douai and Spain. On return- 
ing to England, he found a refuge in the Inns 
of Court, and brought many into the Catholic 
Church, especially among the young lawyers, 
numbers of whom placed themselves under his 
direction. When, after a few years, he was 
arrested, his spiritual sons would gladly have 
risked their lives in planning his escape by 
night. This he utterly refused to permit, saying : 
' I know well it comes from your great love 
for me. . . But what could you possibly wish 
for me that could be more honourable or more 

c 



26 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

glorious . . . than to die . . .for the confession 
of the true Faith and the Christian religion. . . 
Rather strive with me in prayer to God that He 
may give me prudence and wisdom to reply 
discreetly to the judges, and strength of soul to 
bear whatever sufferings are laid upon me." 
He was sentenced to the most barbarous penal- 
ties decreed against priests, and the following 
day was dragged to Tyburn, escorted by many 
of his fervent disciples, who ever and again 
pressed to the side of the hurdle to wipe the 
slush from his face, and at the last they could 
not be kept back from crowding to kiss his hands 
and obtain his blessing till he mounted the 
ladder by which he was to ascend to God. 

Five weeks later, Elizabeth was called to 
appear before the Just Judge, after a reign of 
more than forty-four years. 

FEBRUARY i8xH. 1594. 

YEN. WILLIAM HARRINGTON, Secular 

Priest. .... 

HE was born in Yorkshire. Before being led 
forth to the hurdle on the morning of his 
triumph, he gave his blessing to some poor 
Catholic women who found means to come to 
him. At Tyburn he was offered his life if he 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 27 

would promise to go once to the church by law 
established. He said : " See, then, all my 
treason is that I will not go to church ! ' Top- 
cliffe then bade him tell all he knew of the 
Catholics in the west country, as it was known 
that he had friends there and it was in the power 
of the Sheriff to show mercy and save him. The 
Martyr replied he had nothing to disclose, and 
Topcliffe's mercy was worse than the Turk's 
who, having the body in subjection, sought not 
to destroy the soul. Yet he prayed God to for- 
give him though he was a tyrant and a blood- 
sucker. " No doubt you shall have blood 
enough," he added, * so long as you have 
hands and a halter to hang us, you shall not want 
priests ; we were three hundred in England ; 
you have put to death one hundred ; other two 
hundred are left. When they are gone, two 
hundred more are ready to come in their place. 
For my part, I hope my death will do more 
good than ever my life would have dene." 

FEBRUARY 21 ST, 1595. 
VEN. ROBERT SOUTHWELL, Priest, S.J. 

HE was born at St. Faith's, in Norfolk, and was 
received into the Society of Jesus when only 16 
years old, and early showed signs of great literary 



28 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

gifts. He laboured among his persecuted fellow- 
countrymen for eight years, at the end of which 
time he was betrayed and apprehended a few 
miles from London. Being cast into the Tower, 
he was left for the first month in a most filthy 
dungeon, and for three years he was kept in 
prison and was ten times cruelly racked. When 
he learnt that he was to give the supreme proof 
of his love, his heart overflowed with joy. 

Great care was taken to keep the day of his 
martyrdom secret, and a famous highwayman 
was purposely sentenced to be executed at 
another place at the same hour. These pre- 
cautions were, however, powerless to prevent 
an immense crowd assembling at Tyburn to 
witness the last glorious conflict of the holy 
Jesuit, poet and Martyr. He made the sign of 
the cross as well as he was able with his manacled 
hands, and then began to speak to the people in 
the words of the Apostle : " Whether we live, 
we live to the Lord, or whether we die, we die 
to the Lord ; therefore, whether we live or 
whether we die, we belong to the Lord." Then 
he prayed for the Queen and for his poor country, 
imploring the Divine Bounty to favour it with 
His light and the knowledge of His truth. He 
died at the same age as Our Saviour. 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 29 

FEBRUARY a6TH, 1607. 

YEN. ROBERT DRURY, Secular Priest. 
BORN in Buckinghamshire, Robert Drury was 
educated partly at Rheims and partly at Vail ad - 
olid, where he received ordination, returning to 
England in 1593. He fell into the hands of the 
persecutors about the time that a new Oath of 
Allegiance was imposed upon Catholics in the 
reign of James I. This oath is said to have been 
contrived by Sir Christopher Perkins, a fallen 
Jesuit, and was worded in such a manner that 
Catholics could be divided in their opinion as 
to its lawfulness. It was prohibited by Pope 
Paul V, and that was enough for Father Drury 
as for all true Catholics. When condemned to 
die for remaining in the realm contrary to the 
statute, he might have saved his life by taking 
the oath, but chose to sacrifice his life rather 
than his conscience. 

He suffered with great constancy at the age of 
thirty-nine. 



30 THE ONE PIUNDRED AND FIVE 
FEBRUARY 27111, 1601. 

VEN. MARK BARKWORTH, Priest, O.S.B. 
YEN. ROGER FILCOCK, Priest, S.J. 
VEN. ANNE LINE, Widow. 

IT was the Benedictine Father who sang on his 
way to Tyburn in the bitter cold and falling snow. 
Again, as he stood in the cart with his companion 
priest, the ropes about their necks, " Haec dies 
quam fecit Dominus exultemus," he sang, and 
the Jesuit took up the words of the Easter 
anthem, " Etlaetemurin ea." Father Barkworth 
was born in Lincolnshire, and became a convert 
of the Catholic Faith at the age of twenty-two. 
Having gone to Flanders and thence to Spain, 
he returned to England to work on the mission. 
In order to remind the spectators of the debt 
England owed to the children of St. Benedict, 
he desired to be martyred in the monastic habit. 
A minister cried out : " Repent of your sins 
and remember that Christ has given His life 
for you." The monk devoutly kissed the rope, 
" And so am I now giving my life for Him, and 
would I had a thousand lives to lay down for 
Him." 

VEN. ROGER FILCOCK, who witnessed the 
death of his two companions before he suffered 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 31 

himself, was born at Sandwich, in Kent. The two 
martyrs were lifelong friends, and Father Bark- 
worth had a prophetic presentiment when he 
wrote shortly before the event : " My mind 
tells me that we shall die together, who have 
so long lived together." 

ANNE LINE, weak of body but strong of 
soul, was the first of the three to be martyred. 
Her desire of martyrdom had been increased by 
a vision she had had of Our Lord in the Blessed 
Sacrament bearing His Cross and beckoning her 
to follow Him. On Candlemas Day, 1601, the 
pursuivants, suspecting she harboured a priest, 
broke in while Father Page was saying Mass. 
He had time to escape, but the brave widow was 
hurried off to prison and soon afterwards con- 
demned. At Tyburn she declared with a loud 
voice : " I am sentenced to death for harbouring 
a Catholic Priest, and so far I am from repent- 
ing for having so done, that I wish with all my 
soul that where I have entertained one I could 
have entertained a thousand." 



32 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

MARCH yin, 1544. 
BLESSED JOHN LARKE, Secular Priest. 

BLESSED JERMYN GARDINER, Secular 
Priest. 

YEN. JOHN IRELAND, Secular Priest. 
YEN. THOMAS ASHBY, Layman. 

BLESSED J. LARKE had been the rector of 
St. Ethelburga's, Bishopsgate, for twenty-six 
years, when Blessed Thomas More made him 
parish priest of the old riverside Church at 
Chelsea. It was here the Lord Chancellor came 
with his household on Sundays and holidays, 
accounting it a high privilege to serve Mass, and 
where he came finally to be shriven and receive 
Holy Communion the morning of the day he 
was summoned to appear before the Council. 

Blessed John Larke carried on his work for 
souls another ten years after that. Then, in the 
thirty-fifth year of the reign of Henry VIII, he 
was himself put to the final test, and " following 
the example of his own sheep, afterwards suffered 
a most famous martyrdom for the same cause 
of the supremacy." Two other secular priests, 
BLESSED J. GARDINER kinsman and 
secretary of the Bishop of Winchester and 
YEN. J. IRELAND, with YEN. T. ASHBY, 
Layman, shared his condemnation and martyr- 
dom. 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 33 

APRIL IITH, 1608. 
YEN. GEORGE GERVASE, Priest, O.S.B. 

HE was born at Bosham, in Sussex, his mother 
belonging to the Shelley family of that county. 
George was left an orphan when only twelve 
years old, and with two of his brothers, was kid- 
napped by pirates and carried off to the Indies. 
After another period of twelve years, during 
which time he quite lost the religion taught him 
as a child, he found means to return to England, 
and afterwards went over to Flanders, where 
he succeeded in tracing his eldest brother. 
George Gervase was there reconciled to the 
Catholic Faith, and soon after entered the 
English seminary at Douai. In due time he was 
ordained and sent on the English Mission. In 
the space of two years he won many souls to 
God, and was then apprehended and sent from 
prison to banishment. His brother endeavoured 
to persuade him to remain in safety in Flanders, 
but the promise by which he was bound, as well 
as the great love he bore his country, brought 
him back to die for it. He was thirty-six years of 
age when he yielded up his life at Tyburn, and 
had been but lately enrolled in the Order of St. 
Benedict. 



34 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

APRIL lyTH, 1643. 

VEN. HENRY (PAUL OF ST. MAGDALEN) 
HEATH, Priest, O.F.M. 

HE was born at Peterborough, of Protestant 
parents, and studied at Oxford. His love for 
books, especially for those written by the 
Fathers of the Church, proved the means by 
which he found the true Faith. For a while he 
remained at Douai seminary before entering 
the Convent of the Franciscans in that town, 
being attracted by their fervour and poverty. 
Here for nineteen years he led a life of great 
penance, obedience and meekness, and it was 
here that his old father, for whose conversion he 
had so much prayed, came to seek admission to 
the fold of Christ and became a lay brother in this 
convent of which his son was twice guardian. 

Father Heath had long been consumed by an 
ardent desire for martyrdom, and craved per- 
mission to return to his country. This he at 
length obtained through the intercession of Our 
Lady of Montagu, near Lou vain. Having begged 
his way to London, he was immediately arrested 
and his sentence promptly pronounced. From 
his dungeon he wrote to his Superior : " What 
other thing can I desire than to suffer with 
Christ, to be reproached with Christ, to die a 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 35 

thousand deaths that I may live for ever with 
Christ. ... ' On the way to Tyburn, having 
said his " Nunc Dimittis," he ever invoked the 
Name of Jesus. He died with intense joy and 
sweetness. ' Jesus, convert England, Jesus have 
mercy on this country ; oh, England, be con- 
verted to the Lord thy God ! " were the words 
with which he breathed out his soul. 

APRIL IQTH, 1602. 

VEN. JAMES DUCKETT, Layman. 

His boyhood was spent among the Westmore- 
land hills, where he was brought up in the new 
religion. After his school-days he was bound 
apprentice to a merchant in London, and there 
became convinced of the truth of Catholicism, 
which he embraced after many trials and diffi- 
culties. He chose the trade of a bookseller, and 
supplied books to Catholics, and this was the 
cause of his spending much of his married life 
in prison. He was betrayed by a bookbinder, 
who being condemned to death thus sought 
to save his own life, but lost it, together with his 
honour. The Martyr met him again in the same 
cart that was to take them to Tyburn. As they 
stood beneath the gibbet, with ropes round their 
necks, James Duckett said : " Peter, the cause 



36 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

of my coming hither God and thyself knowest, 
for which I from my heart forgive thee." Then 
he bent and kissed him, saying : Thy life and 
mine are not long ; wilt thou promise me one 
thing ? If thou wilt, speak. Wilt thou die as I 
die, a Catholic ? " 

' I will die as a Christian should die," was 
the answer. 

APRIL 20TH, 1586. 

VEN. RICHARD SERGEANT, Secular Priest. 

YEN. WILLIAM THOMPSON, Secular 
Priest. 

VEN. RICHARD SERGEANT was born in 
Gloucestershire, and his companion in martyr- 
dom at Blackburn, in Lancashire. After a fruitful 
apostolate, both gladly laid down their lives for 
Christ. They were condemned for having been 
made priests beyond the seas. 

APRIL 20TH, 1602. 

VEN. FRANCIS PAGE, Priest, SJ. 

VEN. THOMAS TICHBURN, Secular Priest. 

VEN. ROBERT WATKINSON, Secular Priest. 

VEN. FRANCIS PAGE was a lawyer's clerk 
at the time of his conversion, which he owed to 
the lady to whom he was betrothed. Thereupon 
giving up his heart wholly to God, he entered 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 37 

the seminary of the martyrs. He was saying Mass 
in the house of Anne Line on that Candlemas 
Day on which she was captured. A year later 
he was sold to his enemies by a woman who had 
once professed herself to be a Catholic, but who 
subsequently turned to the base business of be- 
traying priests into the hands of their enemies. 

FATHER TICHBURN was born at Hartley, 
in Hampshire. He was the kinsman of Ven. 
Nicholas Tichburn, who had suffered in his 
stead in the August of the previous year. He 
had now the happiness of witnessing to Christ 
with the life which was already burning itself 
out in a hectic fever. 

It was FATHER WATKINSON who, on 
returning to England in weak health, met on 
the following day a venerable stranger who, 
before suddenly disappearing, greeted him with 
the words, * Jesus bless you, Sir, you seem 
to be sick and troubled with many infirmities ; 
but be of good cheer, for within these four days, 
you shall be cured of all." And so it befell. 



38 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

APRIL 26TH, 1642. 
YEN. EDWARD MORGAN, Secular Priest. 

BORN in Flintshire, North Wales, he was edu- 
cated at the English College of Douai, and was 
ordained priest at Salamanca. 

The last fifteen years of his life were passed 
in the Fleet prison, where he suffered the want 
of all things except courage and confidence in 
God. 

" For though," said he, when death ap- 
proached, " by nature I am timorous, now have 
I no manner of apprehension of halters, knives 
or fires, or whatever else I may suffer for a good 
cause, and gladly would I have many lives if I 
might lay them all down in the service of so good 
a Master." 

He said to those who came to receive his last 
blessing and his cloak was nearly all snipped 
away for relics " Pray that I may die as a 
Catholic priest, with a constant humility and a 
humble constancy, that no fear may terrify me, 
neither any presumption puff me up. . . " 

Father Morgan met death with such cheer- 
fulness that a minister reproved him. The 
Martyr replied : " Why should anyone be 
offended at my going to Heaven cheerfully ? for 
God loves a cheerful giver." 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 39 

MAY 4TH, 1535. 

BLESSED JOHN HOUGHTON, Carthusian 
Prior. 

BLESSED AUGUSTINE WEBSTER, Car- 
thusian Prior. 

BLESSED ROBERT LAWRENCE, Carthus- 
ian Prior. 

BLESSED RICHARD REYNOLDS, Priest, 
Bridgittine. 

BLESSED JOHN HAILE, Secular Priest. 

BLESSED JOHN HOUGHTON was born in 
Essex. He was the Prior and proto-martyr of the 
London Charterhouse, and was also the proto- 
martyr of the one hundred and five glorious 
martyrs of Tyburn. When, in 1535, the Act of 
the Royal Supremacy was published, he went, 
together with the Carthusian Pricrs of Beauvale 
and Axholme, to plead that the monks might 
be held exempt from the Oath, or that it might 
be mitigated for them, though with one voice 
they had chosen to die rather than swerve in 
their allegiance to the Holy See. Thomas 
Cromwell's answer was to send the three Priors 
to the Tower. They were tried and sentenced 
to death. Clad in their white habits, and stretched 
on hurdles, they came to Tyburn as gladly as to 
a marriage feast. Blessed John Houghton was 
the first to win his crown. He was cut down 



40 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

while still conscious, and bore the butchery in- 
flicted on him with invincible meekness. " Good 
Jesu ! what will Ye do with my heart ? " he cried 
as it was torn from his breast. 

BLESSED RICHARD REYNOLDS was 
perhaps the most learned monk of his time in 
England, and certainly one of the holiest. He 
was known to all as the " Angel of Sion," a title 
he won by his saintly life in the Bridgittine 
Monastery of Isle worth. It was felt that the 
submission of such a man to the King's new 
statutes would act powerfully upon the whole 
country, and he was put to the test accordingly. 
But this project entirely failed, his allegiance 
to the Holy See remained unshaken, and the 
terrible sufferings of dungeon and gibbet only 
served to add to the high opinion men had of him. 

BLESSED JOHN HAILE was far advanced 
in years when he was brought to trial on the 
charge of maliciously slandering the King. 
Unlike some of the Martyrs, he felt the full 
horror and dread of death, and this circum- 
stance, aggravated by age and sickness, made 
his end all the more admirable, for he never 
swerved, but offered the sacrifice of his life with 
as much love and fortitude as the most light- 
hearted among them. 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 41 

MAY QTH, 1679. 

VEN. THOMAS PICKERING, Lay-Brother, 
O.S.B. 

HE was professed in the English monastery of 
Douai, and on returning to his own country was 
arraigned as a conspirator in the Gates Plot. It 
was sworn against the Benedictine Brother by 
perjured witnesses that being " a religious man " 
he was to have 30,000 Masses at a shilling 
a Mass for killing the King (an absurd charge as 
he was not a priest). He was further accused of 
walking in St. James's Park with John Grove 
see January 24th -armed with pistols in view of 
this attempt. A most improbable story was con- 
cocted as to how on three separate occasions 
he had been foiled in his purpose. Thomas 
Pickering truly declared he had never fired a 
pistol in his life. He was indeed a man incapable 
of harming anyone, and the most unlikely to plan 
such a desperate deed. He was, however, found 
guilty but reprieved for five months longer, 
the King being very unwilling to consent to the 
death of one whose father had given his life 
in the late civil wars for the royal cause. But 
the Martyr, knowing full well that his religion 
was his only treason, was most happy to die for 
it. At Tyburn, in answer to those who bade him 

D 



42 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

confess his guilt, ere he died, he pulled off his 
cap, showing a smiling countenance : " Is this," 
said he, " the countenance of a man who dies 
under so gross a guilt ? " 



MAY IQTH, 1651. 
YEN. PETER WRIGHT, Priest, SJ. 

HE was the son of poor parents, and was born at 
Slipton, in Northamptonshire. On the death of 
his father, he entered the service of a country 
lawyer. After making a pilgrimage to Rome, he 
was received into the novitiate of the Jesuits in 
Ghent. During the Civil Wars he was sent on 
a Mission to the English soldiers, and was 
afterwards chaplain to the Winchester family, 
with whom he lived until he was captured by 
priest-catchers on Candlemas Day, 1651. 

On the morning of his martyrdom, hearing a 
knock at the iron grill, he took it as a summons 
from Heaven, and cried out : " I come, sweet 
Jesus, I come." It was said by an eyewitness that 
* the Blessed Father was drawn like a triumphal 
victor to Tyburn." Two hundred coaches and 
five hundred horsemen thronged the way. 
Many sought his last blessing from their win- 
dows, balconies and carriages, or pressing 
forward to the hurdle, kissed his hands and cut 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 43 

pieces from his garments for relics. Tyburn 
fields presented one waving mass, the concourse 
being reckoned to number 20,000. 

Even in his death-agony, the Martyr's coun- 
tenance was seen to be smiling and beautiful. 
' And as he drew his last breath, lo ! a little 
bird on a sudden flew through the forest of 
javelins, between the gallows and the Martyr's 
head, and poising its wings . . seemed . . . 
to perch there like a sacerdotal crown. . . 

MAY 28TH, 1582. 

BLESSED THOMAS FORDE, Secular Priest. 

BLESSED ROBERT JOHNSON, Secular 
Priest. 

BLESSED JOHN SHERT, Secular Priest. 

BLESSED THOMAS FORDE, the first of 
these three Martyrs to enter the sharp, bitter 
conflict, was born in Devonshire and brought 
up at Trinity College, Oxford. Not liking the 
Protestant religion, he quitted all temporal 
prospects in order to become a seminary priest. 
He was apprehended with Father Campion 
and with him cast into the Tower. Six months 
after receiving his death sentence, together 
with his two companion Martyrs, he was drawn 
to Tyburn between 6 and 7 o'clock on that May 



44 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

morning. He died praying, " Jesu, Jesu y Jesu, 
esto mihi Jesus I J 

BLESSED ROBERT JOHNSON was born in 
Shropshire. In his youth he was a servant in a 
gentleman's family. He later received Holy 
Orders at Douai. He was also one of those con- 
demned with Father Campion, and at three 
different times was most cruelly racked. 

BLESSED JOHN SHERT was born in Ches- 
hire. He was a convert, and at one time a noted 
London schoolmaster. Just before his own exe- 
cution, seeing Blessed Thomas Forde hanged 
before him, he exclaimed : " O happy Thomas, 
happy art thou that thou hast run that happy 
race ! O benedicta anima ! ' When forced to 
look on the last horrors inflicted on the poor 
mangled body, he repeated these words and was 
blamed for praying to one already dead, and 
again for asking the help of God's Mother and 
His Saints. This he declared to be a doctrine 
sound and true which he would now sign with 
his blood. Then, thanking God for bringing his 
poor servant to so glorious and happy a death, 
the last l of these three Martyrs won his palm. 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 45 

MAY 30TH, 1582. 

BLESSED WILLIAM FILBIE, Secular 
Priest. 

BLESSED LAWRENCE RICHARDSON, 

Secular Priest . 

BLESSED THOMAS COTTAM, Secular 
Priest. 

BLESSED LUKE KIRBY, Secular Priest. 

The first of these four Martyrs was born in 
Oxford and made a priest at Rheims. On re- 
turning to England he was apprehended with 
Father Campion at Lyford Grange. It was more 
than six months before his sentence was carried 
out. He was drawn to Tyburn with his three 
companions and, being the youngest, (he was 
about twenty-seven years old), was first taken 
from the hurdle. One of the Sheriff's men, 
standing in the cart with him, said : " What 
hast thou there in thy handkerchief ? " He found 
it to be a little cross of wood, which he held up 
to the crowd, crying : " O what a villainous 
traitor is this that hath a cross ! ' 

BLESSED LAWRENCE RICHARDSON 
laboured with great fruit in Lancashire, his 
native country. Repeatedly pressed by Top- 
cliffe and the Protestant ministers present at 
his execution to renounce the Pope in order to 



46 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

obtain the Queen's pardon, he bore all their 
endeavours with cheerfulness and remained 
unmoved. 

BLESSED THOMAS COTTAM, when 
told he was to die on the morrow, unable to 
contain his joy, went to the window, crying : 

Give God thanks with me, for to-morrow is 
my day ! " At Tyburn, being placed so as to face 
his companions, he prayed : " Lord Jesus, have 
mercy upon them . . . Lord, give me con- 
stancy to the end. O Domine, tu plura pro me 
passus es ! " He and BLESSED LUKE KIRBY 
both suffered the torture known as the " Scav- 
enger's Daughter." This was probably the name 
given to the hoop of iron into which those con- 
demned were thrust, their bodies being fright- 
fully crushed in it by the tightening of a large 
screw . 



MAY SOTH, 1612. 

VEN. WILLIAM MAURUS SCOT, Priest, 
O.S.B. 

VEN. RICHARD NEWPORT, Secular Priest. 

ON Whitsun Eve they laid down their lives " for 
God's honour and the testimony of the truth." 
Both Martyrs had been banished several times, 
and had returned to England each time at the 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 47 

peril of their lives. YEN. WILLIAM MAURUS 
SCOT joined the Order of St. Benedict in 
Spain, and was one of the first English monks 
of the Congregation of Valladolid. He desired to 
go to his martyrdom in the habit of his Order, 
but this consolation was denied him. His com- 
panion, YEN. RICHARD NEWPORT, had 
been ordained at Rome and was a native of 
Northamptonshire. His labours in the mission 
field bore much fruit, and therefore his speedy 
arrest and condemnation seemed all the more 
desirable to the enemies of the Church. The 
bodies of these two Confessors of the Faith 
were rescued and conveyed at night to the 
house of Dona Luisa de Carvajal, who had 
already paid the last honours to the relics of 
other Martyrs. The protection of the Spanish 
Embassy enabled this brave woman to spend 
herself in ministering to the needs, both spiritual 
and corporal, of Catholics in England, the 
country of her adoption, which she loved with 
a devotion inspired and maintained by God 
Himself. 



48 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

JUNE IST, 1571. 
BLESSED JOHN STOREY, Layman. 

HE belonged to a Northumberland family, and 
was connected with that of the Selbys. He was 
a distinguished lawyer, and had held important 
Government positions, but his fidelity to the 
True Faith exposed him to considerable danger, 
and for the sake of peace of conscience he settled 
in Flanders. He soon regretted that for want of 
greater courage he had deliberately deprived 
himself of martyrdom, and his friends opposing 
his desire to return to England, he gave himself 
up to a life of prayer and penance until poverty 
and the increasing number of his exiled family 
compelled him to enter the service of the Duke 
of Alva. It was on the pretext of aiding him in 
his office, which was that of preventing the 
export of heretical books. to England, that he 
was lured on board a trader at Antwerp. As soon 
as he was below, the hatches were closed and all 
sails set for Yarmouth. From thence he was 
carried to London and imprisoned in the Tower, 
where he had been confined once before. He 
was now very old and infirm. He was tried 
on a charge of treason and for comforting traitors , 
and without proof was found guilty. At Tyburn, 
with the rope round his neck, he made a long 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 49 

speech, and pleaded on behalf of his wife " who 
hath four young children, and God hath now 
taken me away that was her staff and stay. . . . 
I have good hopes that you will be good to her, 
for she is the faithfulest wife, the lovingest, the 
constantest, that ever man had, and twice we 
have lost all that ever we had, and now she hath 
lost me, to her great grief I know." 

He was subjected to more than usual cruelty. 
The fact that no mention is found of the use of 
a triangular gallows before the year 1571 seems 
to confirm the opinion that it was erected for 
the purpose of drawing special attention to Dr. 
Storey's execution. 

JUNE I3TH, 1573. 

BLESSED THOMAS WOODHOUSE, Priest, 
SJ. 

HE was a parish priest in Lincolnshire during 
the reign of Queen Mary. After her death, when 
the persecution against Catholics recommenced, 
he was arrested while saying Mass. He had 
many privileges in prison, being allowed to 
celebrate the Holy Sacrifice daily in his cell. It 
was during his imprisonment that he sought 
admission into the Society of Jesus. 

As his sufferings increased, so did his con- 
tentment, and whenever anyone brought him 



50 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

news that he was to be racked or have more 
iron chains laid on him, he rewarded the bearer 
of the tidings to the best of his power. When 
Blessed J. Storey was about to be executed, 
Father Woodhouse offered his life in his stead. 

After an imprisonment of eleven years, he 
received sentence of death. On the way back to 
Newgate from the Guildhall, when one struck 
him rudely on the face, he said : 

" Would to God I might for thee suffer ten 
times as much that thou mightest go free for 
the blow thou hast given me. I forgive thee and 
pray God to forgive thee, even as I would be 
forgiven." 

At Tyburn, when the Sheriff told him there 
was yet time to repent, and ordered him to ask 
pardon of God. the Queen, and the country, he 
answered : 

" Nay, I, on the part of God, demand of you 
and the Queen that you ask pardon of God, and 
of Mother Church, because, contrary to the 
truth, you have resisted Christ the Lord, and 
the Pope, His Vicar on earth." 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 51 

JUNE iQTH, 1535. 



BLESSED WILLIAM EXMEW, Carthusian 
Priest. 

BLESSED HUMPHREY MIDDLEMORE, 
Carthusian Priest. 

BLESSED SEBASTIEN NEWDIGATE, 
Carthusian Priest. 

THESE three young Carthusian Monks were of 
noble birth, and of great piety and learning. The 
first was Vicar of the London Charterhouse, 
BLESSED HUMPHREY MIDDLEMOREwas 
Procurator ; he belonged to an ancient Warwick- 
shire family. BLESSED SEBASTIEN NEW- 
DIGATE was the son of the Lord of Harefield 
Manor, Middlesex. He was reared at the Court 
of the King, and later, when confined in the 
Marshalsea and the Tower, Henry VIII visited 
him in the hope of winning him over. 

Within a few weeks after the martyrdom of 
their Prior, Blessed John Houghton, they were 
all three seized for refusing to take the Oath of 
the Royal Supremacy. They were cast into a 
dark and filthy dungeon in the Marshalsea Prison, 
and for a fortnight were bound in an upright 
position to posts or columns by iron chains 
fastened round their necks and legs. It being 
supposed they would now submit to the King's 
will, they were taken separately to be examined 



52 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

before the Council, and the Oath was again 
proffered to them. With unswerving courage 
each one refused to act in any way contrary to 
the laws and traditions of Holy Church. They 
were thereupon found guilty and sentenced to 
be hanged, drawn and quartered as traitors. 
They went forth from the Council with glad 
hearts and faces, rejoicing to be accounted worthy 
to suffer for the Name of Jesus. Their desire to 
receive Holy Communion before they died was 
denied them. 

JUNE 20TH, 1679. 

VEN. THOMAS WHITEBREAD, Provincial 
S.J. 

VEN. JOHN FENWICK, Priest, S.J. 
YEN. WILLIAM HARCOURT, Priest, S.J. 
VEN. JOHN GAVAN, Priest, S.J. 
VEN. ANTONY TURNER, Priest, S.J. 

SOON after VEN. THOMAS WHITEBREAD 
had been elected Provincial of the Society of 
Jesus, in England, he made a visitation to his 
brethren at Liege, and preached to them at the 
renovation of their Vows on St. James' Day on 
the text ' Potestis bibere calicem quern ego 
bibiturus sum ? Dicunt ei possumus." It was as 
if he had already foreseen the storm of perse- 
cution that broke out two months later at the 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 53 

instigation of Gates and his associates. Father 
Whitebread was labouring under a severe illness 
when he was apprehended on the charge of being 
concerned in the imaginary Plot, and imprisoned 
and loaded with chains. 

YEN. JOHN FENWICK, or CALDWELL, 
one of his four companions who shared his im- 
prisonment, trial and martyrdom, had been dis- 
owned by his family on becoming a convert. 
He was procurator for his brethren and a most 
diligent toiler in Christ's vineyard. 

YEN. WILLIAM HARCOURT had worked 
upon the Mission 35 years, and was seventy- 
two years of age. He was rector of London at 
the time he met the glorious fate for which he 
had daily prayed. It was on a Friday the five 
Jesuits gained their Calvary and the joys of 
Paradise. 

YEN. JOHN GAY AN and YEN. ANTONY 
TURNER both laboured with great zeal and 
success on the English mission, the one for a 
period of eight years, the other for eighteen 
years, most of which time was passed in Wor- 
cestershire. 



54 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 
JUNE 23RD, 1592. 

VEN.fROBERT, or ROGER ASHTON, Lay- 
man. 

THE biithplace of this Martyr was Croston, in 
Lancashire. He was martyred at Tyburn for 
procuring a dispensation from Rome to marry 
his second cousin, thereby acknowledging the 
authority of the Holy Apostolic See in all matters 
spiritual. 

JUNE 23RD, 1608. 
YEN. THOMAS GARNET, Priest, SJ. 

His father dedicated him to God from his 
birth. He studied at St. Omer's and later at 
Valladolid, where he was made priest and from 
whence he was sent on the English mission. 
He was soon apprehended on suspicion of being 
implicated in the Gunpowder Plot, and com- 
mitted to the Tower where, for many months, he 
had no other bed than the bare ground, whereby 
he contracted severe sciatica. He had long desired 
to enter the Society of Jesus, and the sentence 
of banishment now gave him the opportunity 
of making his novitiate at Louvain. On return- 
ing from beyond the seas, contrary to the penal 
statute, he was betrayed by an apostate priest. 
His friends urged him to try to escape from 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 55 

prison, and suggested some opportunities, but a 
more persuasive voice spoke in his heart, say- 
ing : Noli fugere- ' Do not run away." Hence- 
forth his one fear was lest he should be deprived 
of the crown of martyrdom which he won at 
the age of 34. His last words were those of the 
Veni Creator, " sermone ditans guttura." 



JUNE 28xH, 1654. 
YEN. JOHN SOUTHWORTH, Secular Priest. 

HE was born in Lancashire and was a younger son 
of an ancient and once wealthy family. Educated 
at Douai, he became an alumnus and priest of 
that House. His missionary labours were at first 
in his native county. After some years he was 
taken and condemned, but was reprieved and 
kept a close prisoner in Lancaster Castle. Being 
at length released through the influence of Queen 
Henrietta Maria, he continued his devoted 
labours, but was apprehended for the third time 
by a pursuivant and carried off from his bed at 
night. He was then 72 years old. At his trial he 
refused to deny that he was a priest, though 
the Court assured him that if he did so his life 
would be spared, for they were most reluctant 
to pass judgement against him. The magistrate 
is said to have been so overcome by tears that 



56 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

it was long before he could pronounce the sen- 
tence which he professed the law compelled him 
to give. 

In thunder, lightning and rain, the Martyr 
was brought to Tyburn, but the storm did not 
prevent many thousands of people, many in 
coaches or on horseback, from being present. 
In his last speech, Father South worth said, when 
quoting Our Lord's words : ' Qui vult venire 
post me. . . . tollat suam et sequatur me,' this 
gallows I look on as His Cross, which I gladly 
take up to follow my dear Saviour." 

JUNE 30TH, 1646. 
YEN. PHILIP POWEL, Priest, O.S.B. 

' He was of princely race, of British blood, 
Nor yet the twentieth part so great as good 

.... his hands to every poor 
Most open till they blushed to ask for more, 
Most temperate, and most constant to his 
Christ." 

HE was born in Brecknockshire, and began his 
studies in Abergavenny. When sixteen years old 
he came to London to study law under Father 
Augustine Baker, but being sent on business to 
Douai, he found his true vocation, and received 
the habit of St. Benedict. On returning to 
England after his ordination, he laboured for 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 57 

twenty years as a missionary. Then the Civil 
War broke out, and he was taken prisoner, un- 
justly tried, and sentenced to death. He received 
the announcement with a " Deo gratias," adding 
that owing to the crowd he could not thank God 
on his knees, yet he did so in his heart. He was 
given the choice of the day on which he was to 
die, but he refused to be in any way guilty of his 
own death. When he was told the day was fixed, 
he said : ; Welcome whatever conies, God's 
Name be praised ! What am I that God thus 
honours me, and will have me die for His Sake ! " 
" This is the happiest day and the greatest 
joy that ever befel me," Father Powel said at 
Tyburn, " for I am brought hither for no other 
cause or reason . . . than that I am a Roman 
Catholic priest, and a monk of the Order of St. 
Benedict. 



JULY IST, 1616. 
YEN. THOMAS MAXFIELD, Secular Priest. 

HE was born in Staffordshire of a distinguished 
family of that county. His chief studies were 
made abroad, and he began to work on the 
Mission in England in 1615. After exercising 
the apostolate for barely three months he was 
apprehended, and there ensued a period of 

E 



58 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

ill-treatment, which only ended with his death 
on the gibbet. The most inhuman of the tor- 
tures inflicted on him was his confinement in a 
pair of stocks so contrived that his body could 
find no relief either by standing upright or 
lying down. The darkness and filth of the dungeon 
where he was placed added to his sufferings. 
Before his trial he had the consolation of recon- 
ciling to God two from among a gang of felons 
who were also awaiting the death sentence. 
When Father Maxfield was brought to the place 
of sacrifice, whither he was accompanied by a 
multitude on horse and foot, the gallows were 
found to be adorned with garlands of fragrant 
flowers, and the ground strewn with sweet- 
smelling herbs and branches of bay and laurel. 
TheMartyr, feeble and emaciated by eight months 
of confinement and torture, but no less cheerful 
than he had ever been hitherto, rejoiced to be 
* a member of that blessed house of Douai that 
hath afforded our poor barren country so much 
good and happy seed." 

His remains were thrown into a pit under 
fifteen other bodies, two of which were those of 
felons executed a month before. This, however, 
did not deter his devoted friends of the Spanish 
Embassy from coming by night to rescue his 
mangled body. 







!6le00eD ate tfjep tfcat suffer 
Persecution, 

1Dere 3D. liver flMunfcet, Qvimate ot all 

3relanfc, eeeWns bie bunteD sbeep on tbe 

mountainside, connrmetb tbeir fainting 

sonls witb tbe cbrism of salvation* 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 59 

JULY IST, 1 68 1. 

YEN. OLIVER PLUNKET, Archbishop of 
Armagh. 

THE last victim of the " Popish Plot " was, in 
his boyhood, sent to Rome to be educated. For 
some time he lived with the Fathers of the 
Oratory ; subsequently, on the See of Armagh 
falling vacant, the Holy Father appointed him 
Archbishop, and Plunket gladly returned to 
his country, lately devastated by Cromwell's 
hordes. He ordained clergy, put down abuses, 
built schools and administered confirmation 
to thousands in the woods and on the mountains. 
He was often forced to go in disguise, and the 
episcopal palace of the successor of St. Patrick 
was no more than a thatched cottage. When 
the persecution broke out afresh, at the insti- 
gation of Titus Oates, much of his work was 
undone, and he was delivered to his enemies 
by apostate priests, who afterwards bore false 
witness against him. He was sent to London, 
and after eighteen months in prison underwent 
a most unjust trial. He received the death sen- 
tence with a joyous ' Deo gratias." His last 
days were spent in earnest but tranquil prepar- 
ation for the final sacrifice. His devoted friend 
and confessor, Father Corker, wrote of him. 



6o THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

that his joy seemed to increase with his danger 
and was fully accomplished by an assurance 
of death. The saintly white-haired Primate of 
all Ireland was drawn to Tyburn in his ponti- 
fical robes, and laid down his life for his sheep 
" with a courage fearless of death." 



JULY 6iH, 1585. 

YEN. THOMAS ALFIELD, Secular Priest. 
YEN. THOMAS WEBLEY, Layman. 

YEN. THOMAS ALFIELD was born in 
Gloucester. He was ordained at Rheims, and 
after his return to the English Mission he found 
means to import into the kingdom some copies 
of Dr. Allen's " Modest Answer to the English 
Persecutors." This was in reply to a book sup- 
posed to have been written by Cecil, Lord 
Treasurer, in which he attempted to falsely 
persuade the world that the Catholics who had 
suffered in England since the Queen's accession 
to the throne, had not suffered for religion but 
for treason. 

Father Alfield circulated Dr. Allen's " An- 
swers " by the help of THOMAS WEBLEY, 
a dyer. Both priest and layman were soon called 
to account for the part they had taken, and were 
most cruelly tortured in the attempt to make 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 61 

them reveal the names of the persons to whom 
the books had been distributed. They were 
brought to trial and suffered at Tyburn on the 
day following their condemnation. Both had 
their lives offered to them if they would renounce 
the Pope and acknowledge Queen Elizabeth to 
be the head of the Church. They cheerfully 
chose martyrdom rather than listen to such 
conditions. 

JULY I4TH, 1679. 
YEN. RICHARD LANGHORNE, Layman. 

A BARRISTER and a zealous Catholic, Langhorne 
was one of the first victims of Titus Gates and 
his associates, being impeached by them as a 
ringleader in their pretended plot, and especially 
as conspiring to kill the King. After more than 
eight months' close imprisonment in Newgate, 
he was tried, and false witnesses having been 
called, he was condemned with Father White- 
bread, the English Provincial, and the other 
four Jesuit Fathers who were his companions. 

He declared on the scaffold at Tyburn, that 
not only a pardon, but many preferments and 
estates had been offered to him if he would for- 
sake his religion. 

As the hangman was placing the rope round 
his neck, he took it into his hands and kissed it. 



62 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

Crossing himself, he prayed : ' Blessed Jesus, 
into Thy hands I commend my soul and spirit, 
now at this instant take me into Paradise. I am 
desirous to be with my Jesus." 

JULY 26TH, 1641. 
YEN. WILLIAM WARD, Secular Priest. 

His real name was Webster, and he was born 
at Thornley, in Westmoreland. At the time of 
his martyrdom he was eighty years old, and was 
the first priestly victim of the Long Parliament. 
He had toiled twelve years on the English Mission 
and had spent nearly double that time in various 
prisons. He was also banished several times. 

On first landing on the coast of Scotland on 
his return from Douai, he was thrust into a 
totally dark underground dungeon for three 
years. Father Ward belonged to the Third Order 
of St. Francis, and was a great lover of poverty, 
and austere both towards himself and towards 
those he directed, by whom, however, he was 
much loved. He had always had a great de- 
votion to the Mother of Our Blessed Lady, 
inviting all his penitents who bore her name to 
join him in keeping her solemn feast. It was on 
St. Anne's Day that he obtained the favour of 
laying down his life for Christ. On that morning 
one of his friends brought him a new coat. 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 63 

You are right to dress me better than usual," 
he said, " since I am going to a more splendid 
banquet and a more joyful wedding than any at 
which I have ever been present." 

" If God had given me a thousand lives," he 
said on the scaffold, ' I should deem myself 
happy to sacrifice them all for my priesthood 
and the Catholic Church." Told that he was 
being put to death for seducing the people, 
" Would to God," he exclaimed, " I had con- 
verted more. Nay, even all England ! ' 



JULY 3 IST, 1581. 
BLESSED EVERARD HANSE, Secular Priest. 

HE was born in Northamptonshire, and brought 
up as a Protestant. At a time when he had fallen 
ill in the midst of his fame as a popular preacher, 
he was converted to the Catholic religion. On 
his recovery he entered the English Seminary 
at Rheims, returning to England after his ordin- 
ation. His apostolate only lasted a few weeks. 
One day, when visiting prisoners for the Faith 
in the Marshalsea, he was apprehended on 
suspicion of being a seminary priest, some spies 
having noticed that his boots were of foreign 
manufacture. He was cast into a dungeon in 
Newgate with thieves and felons, and there laden 
with heavy chains. 



64 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

The day before he offered the sacrifice of his 
life, he wrote to his brother : ' I pray you be 
careful for my parents. . . my prayers shall 
not be wanting to aid you by God's grace. Give 
thanks to God for all that He hath sent ; cast 
not yourself into dangers wilfully, but pray to 
God, when occasion is offered, you may take it 
with patience. The comforts at the present 
moment are unspeakable, the dignity too high 
for a sinner, but God is merciful. Bestow my 
things you find ungiven away upon my poor 
kinsfolk. . . . Have me commended to my 
friends, let them think I will not forget them. 
The day and hour of my birth is at hand. . . ." 

In the anguish of a most cruel death, the 
Martyr was heard to cry : " O happy day ! ' 



AUGUST 4TH, 1540. 

BLESSED WILLIAM HORNE, Carthusian 
Lay Brother. 

YEN. EDMUND BRINDHOLM, Secular 
Priest. 

YEN. CLEMENT PHILPOT, Layman. 

BLESSED WILLIAM HORNE was one of 
the ten Carthusians of the London Charterhouse 
who, on refusing to sign the Oath of the King's 
supremacy, were dragged to Newgate and there 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 65 

treated with inhuman cruelty. He and his com- 
panions, three Priests, one Deacon, and five 
Lay Brothers, were rivetted by means of heavy 
fetters fastened to their necks and legs, to the 
walls and columns of their dungeon. Their 
hands were bound behind them, and they were 
thus left to perish of starvation. From this fate 
they were saved for a time by the courageous 
charity of Blessed Thomas More's adopted 
daughter, Margaret Clement, who came to 
minister to and feed them at the risk of her life. 
When she could do this no longer, the valiant 
confessors laid down their lives one by one till 
William Home alone survived. Some time later 
he was taken from prison to Tyburn there to 
consummate his sacrifice and share his triumph 
with Father BRINDHOLM and CLEMENT 
PHILPOT. He was the last of the fifteen sons 
of Blessed John Houghton, who followed him 
along the road to martyrdom. 



66 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

AUGUST 24TH, 1601. 

YEN. NICHOLAS TICHBOURNE, Layman. 
YEN. THOMAS HACKSHOT, Layman. 

YEN. NICHOLAS TICHBOURNE was 
born at Hartley, in Hampshire. He was related 
to Yen. Thomas Tichbourne, Priest, martyred 
at Tyburn a year later. Father Tichbourne owed 
this extra time of his apostolate to the self- 
sacrificing devotion of his kinsman and of Thomas 
Hackshot, who laid down their lives in his 
stead, being condemned for having assisted in 
rescuing him. 

YEN. THOMAS HACKSHOT was born at 
Mursley, in Buckinghamshire. His part in the 
matter was this : Knowing that the holy prisoner 
was to be conducted through a certain street by 
a single keeper, he awaited their coming, and 
knocking down the officer, gave the priest the 
opportunity to escape. Being less careful of his 
own safety, he was seized and cast into the 
dungeon which the priest had just vacated. 
There he endured diverse torments, till at 
length he was brought to trial and sentenced to 
die for the same cause of Christian charity with 
Nicholas Tichbourne. 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 67 

AUGUST 30TH, 1588. 

YEN. RICHARD LEIGH, Secular Priest. 
YEN. EDWARD SHELLEY, Layman. 
YEN. RICHARD MARTIN, Layman. 
YEN. RICHARD FLOWER, Layman. 
YEN. JOHN ROCHE, Layman. 
YEN. MARGARET WARD, Gentlewoman. 

YEN. R. LEIGH was martyred for the sole 
cause of his priesthood, and his companions 
either for being reconciled to the Church or 
for assisting and relieving priests. 

It was for this latter offence that MARGARET 
WARD was condemned. Hearing that Father 
Watson was suffering cruel torments in Bride- 
well, where no one ventured to succour him, she 
found means, by making friends with the jailor's 
wife, to give him food and finally procured 
him a rope by which he made his escape. She 
was at once apprehended, imprisoned and 
loaded with irons. She was moreover hung by 
the hands and cruelly scourged, all of which 
sufferings she accepted as preludes to the 
martyrdom by which she hoped with the grace 
of God to be honoured. When brought to trial, 
she said that never in her life had she done any- 
thing of which she repented less, that death for 
such a cause would be very welcome to her, and 



68 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

that she was willing to lay down not one life only, 
but many if she had them. She showed to the 
end an unswerving constancy. 

SEPTEMBER 7TH, 1644. 

YEN. RALPH CORBY, Priest, S.J. 
YEN. JOHN DUCKETT, Secular Priest. 

WHILE yet a student at Douai, RALPH CORBY 
was much given to mental prayer, passing long 
nights in heavenly communications. He be- 
longed to a very religious family. His father and 
two brothers became Jesuits, and his mother 
and two sisters entered the Order of St. Benedict. 
In the second year after Ralph Corby's icturn 
to England, when on his way to baptize two 
children, he was captured by some Parliament 
soldiers and committed to prison on account of 
his priesthood. He was sent to London to be 
tried at the same time as John Duckett. 

YEN. JOHN DUCKETT was born at Under- 
winder, in Yorkshire, in 1613, and was made 
priest in 1639. It was on the Feast of the Visi- 
tation of Our Lady that he was apprehended. 
He was taken to London, together with Father 
Corby, and the two confessors, having been 
condemned, were taken back to prison to " wait 
for that blessed and happy Saturday which is 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 69 

the Vigil of Her glorious nativity." When hopes 
were given that the life of one of them might be 
saved, neither was willing to accept the offer at 
the expense of the other. Ven. John Duckett 
had often testified that " ever since he was a 
priest he did much fear to live but nothing fear 
to die." Arrived at Tyburn, the Martyrs em- 
braced each other and kissed the rope and 
gallows, dying most joyfully for the love of their 
Saviour and for the cause of their religion. John 
Duckett was thirty, and Ralph Corby forty-six 
years of age. 

OCTOBER STH, 1586. 

VEN. JOHN ADAMS, Secular Priest. 

VEN. JOHN LOWE, Secular Priest. 

VEN. RICHARD DIBDALE, Secular Priest. 

THESE three Martyrs were condemned and 
suffered martyrdom by reason of their priestly 
character and for exercising their sacred func- 
tions. The first was born in Dorsetshire. 

VEN. JOHN LOWE was a Londoner. He 
was a convert and had been a Protestant Minister. 

VEN. RICHARD DIBDALE was born in 
Worcestershire. He practised the office of an 
exorcist, and delivered and reconciled to the 



70 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

Church many possessed persons who, by for- 
saking their religion, had fallen into the power 
of the Evil One. He forced the devils to confess 
to their confusion the virtue which is contained 
in the Sign of the Cross, Holy Water, and the 
relics, both of the ancient saints and of the Mar- 
tyrs who suffered in England in those days for 
the Catholic Faith. 

OCTOBER I2TH, 1642. 

YEN. THOMAS (JOHN BAPTIST) BULL- 
AKER, Priest, O.F.M. 

HE was born at Chichester, in Sussex, in 1604. 
His life was given to God from the first. At 
the age of eighteen he obtained permission from 
his father to become a missionary priest. He 
is described as a tall, handsome youth, grave, 
modest and remarkably like the pictures of Our 
Lord. 

After studying for a short time at a Jesuit 
College, at Valladolid, Bullaker became con- 
vinced that his vocation lay rather in the Order 
of St. Francis. He was ordained in time as a 
Franciscan priest, and soon after he begged a 
secular dress and set off on foot to Bordeaux, 
landing in England without a penny. He laboured 
and endured many hardships on the mission 
for eleven years, and was finally seized, by the 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 71 

apostate Wadsworth, while saying Mass. His 
hostess and her little son were likewise taken 
by the pursuivants. At his trial, when he was 
called a traitor and seducer of the people, he 
said : ' Now you give me occasion to rejoice, 
because you treat me with the same title as the 
Jews did my Saviour." 

Sentenced to be taken on a hurdle to Tyburn, 
there to be hanged, cut down and beheaded, 
Father Bullaker knelt and recited the Te Deum. 
To one who informed him in prison of the early 
date of his death, he said : ' I thank you 
heartily, my friend, for this long desired and 
joyful news. Believe me, were it not for my 
great poverty, I would not send you away 
empty-handed." 

From the scaffold he preached with his dying 
lips of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. ' 

NOVEMBER 27111, 1633. 
YEN. ARTHUR McGEOGHAN, Priest, O.P. 

HAVING completed his studies in Spain, he was 
seized when returning to his Province, and cast 
into prison in London by English heretics. He 
was brought to trial under a malicious pretext, 
and condemned to death. At Tyburn he made 
open profession of being a Catholic and a 



72 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

Dominican, and, with a fearless countenance, 
met his end praying : ' O thou glorious Virgin, 
Mother of Our God and Saviour, pray to thy 
Son Jesus Christ to receive my soul." 

He was hanged, and while still alive his limbs 
were cut asunder. 

His judge, Falkland, Viceroy of Ireland, 
suffered the penalty of the unjust sentence, as 
he himself was led to acknowledge when his 
leg was broken in an extraordinary way. 

After the martyrdom, an enquiry was held 
at the wish of Queen Henrietta Maria, the 
result of which was that Charles I caused 
placards to be posted, on which it was stated 
that Father McGeoghan had been unjustly 
accused and condemned, and those responsible 
for the crime were held up to scorn. 

DECEMBER IST, 1581. 

BLESSED EDMUND CAMPION, Priest, 
S.J. 

BLESSED RALPH SHERWIN, Secular Priest. 

BLESSED ALEXANDER BRIANT, Priest, 
SJ. 

A PLAY on the name of the first of these Martyrs 
described exactly what he was the Pope's 
C(h)ampion. Nothing could daunt his valour, 
neither promises of worldly gain, the basest 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 73 

calumny, public ridicule, the exquisite torture 
of the rack, none of these things, which were in 
turn applied to break his spirit, succeeded. It is 
true he had consented to be made a deacon 
after the new manner when he was at Oxford, 
but his repentance for this momentary weak- 
ness was so strong that it won for him his 
vocation to the Priesthood in the Society of 
Jesus, and was a powerful incentive to be true 
to the Faith ever after. It was in accordance 
with Dr. Allan's advice that he embraced the 
perilous mission of re-evangelising his own 
country, and it was by a series of hairbreadth 
escapes that he carried forward an apostolate of 
marvellous fruitfulness. His natural gifts stood 
him in good stead ; he had the wit and elo- 
quence that had led to his fall in the days when 
he cared for a Queen's praise ; now he devoted 
all his talents to the Heavenly Master, hoping 
for no sweeter reward than that which was granted 
to him at the age of forty- two. After suffering 
such cruel torments in prison that it was feared 
the rack-men had gone too far and the gallows 
would be deprived of a prey, he was neverthe- 
less found in a state of calm cheerfulness on the 
day of execution. 

When his turn came, BLESSED RALPH 
SHERWIN kissed with great devotion the blood 

F 



74 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

of Edmund Campion dripping from the hands 
of the executioners. Like Campion, it was asked 
of him very expressly whom he meant when he 
prayed for and forgave the Queen. He replied : 
" Yea, for Elizabeth Queen, I now at this instant 
pray my Lord God. ... He died with the 
cry on his lips : ' Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, be to me a 
Jesus." 

BLESSED ALEXANDER BRIANT. The 
third of these Priests, who the night before had 
heard one another's confessions in prison, im- 
mediately followed the other two on the fatal 
cart. His martyrdom was even more cruel owing 
to the negligence of the hangman, and also to 
the inhuman efforts of those who, when he was 
in his last extremity, endeavoured to make him 
recant. Again the question was put : " What of 
the sovereignty of the Queen ? ' He declared 
that being a true Catholic he fully accepted the 
Bull of Pius V, by which the Queen was 
formally excommunicated. He then began the 
* Miserere * and yielded up his soul to God 
after long torments." 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 75 

DECEMBER 3RD, 1678. 
YEN. EDWARD COLEMAN, Layman. 

HE was a minister's son, and was born in 
Suffolk and educated at Cambridge. Afterwards 
he became a zealous convert. The Duchess of 
York made him her secretary, and he was thus 
enabled to procure more liberty of conscience 
for Catholics and to stand them in good stead 
in many ways. At the outbreak of the Titus 
Gates Plot, some letters he had written to Pere 
La Chaise, the French King's confessor, were 
seized, and he was brought to trial charged with 
plotting against the King's life, raising rebellion 
in Ireland, etc. Gates and Bedloe further de- 
clared he had received a commission ' from 
the General of the Jesuits " to be secretary of 
State. When it was objected that there were 
many contradictions in his evidence, Gates 
complained that he had undergone great fatigue 
for two days and two nights in the pursuit after 
Jesuits, and this had so exhausted him that he 
did not know what he said. 

Edward Coleman denied all that was sworn 
against him, protesting his innocence with his 
last breath. He died having done all in his power 
to help the cause of religion, 



76 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

DECEMBER 5TH, 1612. 
YEN. JOHN ALMOND, Secular Priest. 

HE was born at Allerton, near Liverpool, and 
made his theological studies at Rheims and 
Rome, returning to England a priest. Being 
condemned for this cause, he was drawn from 
Newgate to Tyburn between seven and eight 
o'clock in the morning on December 5th, 1612. 
His first act at the place of execution was to take 
off his hat and bless God with a loud voice for 
holding him worthy to die for His Name and 
His Glory. He then turned to the Sheriff and 
asked him simply what he was to do. He was 
told to get into the cart standing under the 
Tree. This he did with difficulty owing to the 
ill-treatment he had received and his long im- 
prisonment. He then told the bystanders how 
he had come there to die for Christ's cause, and 
how glad and willing he was to lose his life for 
His honour, regretting nothing but that he had 
no more lives to lose nor more blood to shed for 
his blessed Redeemer. He placed all his hopes 
in God, confident that He would strengthen 
him with His power. At no time did Father 
Almond show signs of fear or faint-heartedness ; 
he possessed to the end the same smiling 
serenity with which he had set out on the hurdle. 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 77 

He desired the executioner to make known to 
him when the cart was to be drawn away that 
he might die with the sweet Name of Jesus on 
his lips. 

The Protestant Bishop of London, who was 
one of the chief promoters of the Martyr's 
condemnation, is believed to have received the 
grace to die in the communion of the Holy 
Catholic Church. 

DECEMBER IOTH, 1591. 

YEN. POLYDORE PLASDEN, Secular Priest. 
YEN. EUSTACE WHITE, Secular Priest. 
YEN. SYDNEY HODSON, Layman. 
YEN. BRYAN LACEY, Layman. 
YEN. JOHN MASON, Layman. 

BEING brought to Tyburn, the two priests were 
the first to yield up their lives. They had all 
been captured at the Mass said by Father 
Gennings in the house of Yen. Swithin Wells, 
who with Father Gennings was martyred at 
Gray's Inn Fields. 

At Tyburn, when pressed by specious ques- 
tions as to whether he would defend the Queen 
against the Pope, POLYDORE PLASDEN re- 
plied : ' I am a Catholic priest, therefore I 
would never fight, nor counsel others to fight 



78 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

against my religion, for that we.re to deny my 
faith. O Christ," said he, looking up to heaven, 
and kissing the rope " I will never deny Thee 
for a thousand lives." He was thereupon 
hanged as a traitor. 

FATHER WHITE, who was the next to 
follow him, had already suffered much while 
in Bridewell under the power of the inhuman 
Topcliffe, being once hung by the hands in iron 
manacles for eight hours in the effort to induce 
him to reveal the names of those in whose houses 
he had said Mass. No torture, however, could 
wring from him any other words than * Lord, 
more pain if Thou pleasest and more patience." 

YEN. SYDNEY HODSON, BRYAN LACEY 
and JOHN MASON, the three laymen, who 
were their companions, were martyred for 
having assisted and defended priests. 

DECEMBER IOTH, 1610. 

YEN. JOHN ROBERTS, Priest, O.S.B. 
YEN. THOMAS SOMERS, Secular Priest. 

YEN. JOHN ROBERTS was born in Merion- 
ethshire in Wales, and received his education 
abroad, passing successively from Rheims to 
Rome and thence to Spain, where he entered 
the Order of St. Benedict. His apostolic zeal and 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 79 

devotion was put to the proof, especially at the 
time of the Great Plague, when equally fearless 
of the persecutors and of the infection, he gave 
himself up entitely to ministering to the souls 
and bodies of those afflicted. He was apprehended 
at Mass on the first Sunday of Advent, 1610, 
and was taken to prison in his priestly vestments. 
Being brought to Tyburn, he rejoiced to see 
that, like his Master, he was to die among thieves 
and almost the last words he spoke were words 
of encouragement and absolution. The spirit of 
peace and joy that characterised him at all times 
was manifest to all who witnessed the manner 
in which he suffered. Two days after his 
martyrdom his precious remains were dug out 
of the pit where they had been thrown ; a part 
of these relics were taken to Douai, and one arm 
was sent to the Abbey of St. Martin at Compos- 
tella, where he had made profession and re- 
ceived Holy Orders ten years before. 

Hiscompanioninmartyrdom, VEN. THOMAS 
SOMERS, had dedicated his labours to poor 
Catholics with such zealous love as to be com- 
monly known as the parish priest of London. 
He was born in Westmoreland and spent part 
of his early manhood teaching in a grammar 
school in his native countv. He counselled 

^ 

many a youth to join the students of the English 



8o THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

College at Douai, and when the opportunity 
occurred he himself went to Douai and in due 
time became a missionary priest. In this capacity 
his work in England lasted but four years. 

DECEMBER IITH, 1643. 

YEN. ARTHUR (FRANCIS) BELL, Priest, 
O.F.M. 

HE was born near Worcester, and received his 
early education almost entirely from his mother. 
At the age of 24 he left England to study for the 
priesthood. It was during the time of the Civil 
Wars that Father Bell, after labouring on the 
Mission for nine years, was apprehended by 
the Parliament soldiers on suspicion of being a 
spy. They searched him and found among other 
papers, a form for blessing the cord of St. 
Francis, and this they imagined was a spell. He 
was stripped of sword, money and clothes, and 
clad in an old tattered soldier's coat, and thus 
carried on horseback to London as an object of 
derision in every town and village through which 
he passed. 

Father Bell had been in Newgate twenty-four 
hours when he received a letter telling him of 
his election as Guardian of the Convent at 
Douai, which office had been vacant since the 
martyrdom of Father Heath. 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 81 

At his trial he returned hearty thanks to his 
accusers, saying : c I shall most willingly and 
with the greatest joy die with Christ and His 
Apostles and Martyrs, my cause being the same 
as theirs. " His face bore witness to the sweet- 
ness and serenity of his soul. On coming to 
Tyburn he said : " Now I see verified in me 
what was foretold by happy Thomas Bullaker," 
for that Martyr had said before winning his own 
crown a year ago : ' God will have me to go 
first, but you shall soon follow me." 

Father Bell was left to hang for the space of a 
Miserere. Under his secular coat was found 
the habit of his Order. 



DECEMBER I2TH, 1642. 
YEN. THOMAS HOLLAND, Priest, SJ. 

HE was born in Lancashire, and sent over while 
still very young, to the English College at St. 
Omer's, and from thence to Valladolid, being 
finally ordained priest at Liege. For some time 
he was minister at the house of the Jesuits at 
Ghent. After he had pronounced his vows, he 
was sent upon the Mission in the hope that the 
change would restore his health. 

A strict search for priests was being made at 



82 MARTYRS OF TYBURN 

the time, and he was forced to lie in close con- 
finement, scarcely venturing to walk in the 
garden of the house that sheltered him. Under 
cover of darkness and disguise, he contrived to 
serve many souls, especially among the poor. 
At length he was apprehended and sentenced 
to die, to which he calmly responded : ' Deo 
Gratias." 

At Tyburn he heartily thanked God for being 
the first of the Society of Jesus to be condemned 
to death under that Parliament. He yielded up 
his life praying for the royal family, the parlia- 
ment, and the whole nation," for whose pros- 
perity and conversion to the Catholic Faith," 
he said, " if I had as many lives as there are 
hairs on my head, drops of water in the ocean, 
or stars in the firmament, I would most willingly 
sacrifice them all." These words were greeted 
with a shout of applause from the crowd. 

Of the Martyr's character it is said " that he 
had extraordinary talents for promoting the 
greater glory of God, and that he made an extra- 
ordinary use of them." 




SMALL GUIDE FOR A VISIT TO THE 
ORATORY OF THE ENGLISH MARTYRS 

ENEATH the Chapel of Perpetual Ex- 
I position at Tyburn Convent is the Oratory 
of the English Martyrs, the memorial shrine 
of one hundred and five priests, religious, lay- 
men and women, who laid down their lives at 
Tyburn in defence of the Catholic Faith. 

The Oratory is found on the left on entering 
the hall. Visitors are admitted on applying to 
the portress, and may thus make a closer in- 
spection of the reredos and the paintings than 
is possible through the grilled door. The 
precious contents of the reliquaries on the walls 
especially invite examination. They are the chief 
treasure of this little shrine, and explain its 
existence. Gratitude towards those whom they 
recall has inspired several anonymous bene- 
factors to complete what the Nuns had begun 
in coming to Tyburn. They accordingly offered 
to decorate the Oratory in honour of the 
Martyrs who shed their blood within a few yards 
of this very spot, and one of the first effects of 



84 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

their undertaking was the erection over the altar 
of a 

REPLICA OF TYBURN GALLOWS. 

r 

On the beams of the gallows are inscribed 
the last words of Ven. Henry Heath : " Jesus, 
convert England ! Jesus have mercy on this 
country " (now the daily prayer of the Guild of 
Our Lady of Ransom), and the dying cry of Bl. 
Thomas Forde and other victims of the Triple 
Tree : " Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, esto mihi, Jesus ' 
(Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, be to me a Jesus !) Two 
relics of Father Heath will be found encased on 
the walls. 

At the back of the Altar, setting off the 
Gallows, hangs a curtain embroidered with 
palms and crowns, above which are emblazoned 
the Arms of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, 
Oxford and Cambridge. It is the work of the boys 
of St. Joseph's School of Arts and Crafts at the 
Benedictine Abbey of Maredsous. By them 
were also wrought the six jewelled lamps that 
hang from the beams of " Tyburn Tree," while 
an example of their skill in carving is shewn in 
the oaken reredos. 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 85 

REREDOS. 

It contains seven exquisite statuettes repre- 
senting Our Lady, Queen of Martyrs, and six of 
the principal Beati who died at Tyburn. They 
have been chosen as typical of the various classes 
and orders found in their ranks. Taking the 
figures in order, starting from the left, they are, 
first that of YEN. THOMAS SHERWOOD, a 
young layman cruelly tortured before his execu- 
tion during the Elizabethan persecution. The 
Order of the Privy Council still exists by which 
he was officially consigned to the dungeon 
" among the rats " in the Tower of London 
Harrison Ainsworth, it will be remembered, 
describes this place of torment in his novel The 
Tower of London he stands tied to a post while 
two great rats tear his flesh. 

The next figure is that of BLESSED ED- 
MUND CAMPION, S.J., writing his famous 
book, Decem Rationes, with which he shook first 
Oxford, and then all the realm. He suffered 
unspeakable torments in prison before rack gave 
place to rope and knife, and Tyburn ended his 
martyrdom. He was famous for the sanctity of 
his life, his wit and the sweetness of his dis- 
position. 

The third figure is that of the Proto -martyr 
BLESSED JOHN HOUGHTON, Prior of the 



86 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

London Charterhouse. He is shown vested for 
Mass, holding in his hands a Chalice, while at 
his feet are laid branches of palm. It was while 
celebrating the Mass of the Holy Ghost that he 
and his monks were supernaturally confirmed 
in their resolution to endure death rather than 
fail in obedience to the Holy See. This famous 
Mass is the subject of one of the paintings in 
the Oratory. 

THE QUEEN OF MARTYRS occupies the 
central position among these worthy followers 
of Her Son. She is represented with the Crown 
of Thorns clasped to her heart, a majestic figure 
of woe, recalling in pose and drapery a well- 
known Madonna at Wurzburg. 

On her left stands BLESSED SEBASTIAN 
NEWDIGATE, the Carthusian monk, shown 
fettered in an upright position as he was for 
fifteen long days in the Marshalsea Prison. 

Next to him is BLESSED RICHARD REY- 
NOLDS, " the Angel of Syon," in the Brigittine 
habit, a lily growing before him to signify the 
spotless purity of his life. 

The last figure is that of BLESSED RALPH 
SHERWIN, a secular Priest, vested in a Roman 
Chasuble and holding St. Peter's keys in token 
of the cause for which he died so joyously. His 
singujarly beautiful face, is youngj and ardent, 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 87 

THE STAINED-GLASS WINDOWS 

designed and executed by Miss Margaret Rope, 
illustrate, by scenes from the lives of the Martyrs: 

(1) The Eight Beatitudes ; and 

(2) The Corporal Works of Mercy. 

(i) At the top of the window of THE BEATI- 
TUDES, beneath the instruments of the 
Passion and the inscription, ' * Tu Domtne plura 
nobis passus es" is a medallion with the Queen 
of Martyrs and another, representing the scene 
on the Mount where " Christ the King of 
Martyrs expoundeth to His elect servants the 
blessedness of those who suffer for His love." 
In the other parts of the window the Eight Beati- 
tudes are illustrated. The first, by the seraphic 
Martyr, Ven. Henry Heath, who, while sleeping 
on a London doorstep in the snow, is being 
seized by the watch and carried off to prison. 
Exemplifying the blessedness of the meek, is 
Blessed Thomas Woodhouse being struck on the 
face on his way to Newgate. Dona Luisa de 
Carvajal is represented consoling the Martyrs 
in prison while she washes their feet. The subject 
of the fourth Beatitude is young Alexander 
Bryant. Reaching through his prison bars after 
cruel racking, he " seeketh to catch in his hat 
the drops of rain wherewith to slake his thirst. 



" 



THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

The next four Beatitudes are illustrated by 
Ven. James Duckett forgiving and embracing 
his betrayer on the way to Tyburn ; the monks 
of the London Charterhouse singing the Mass 
of the Holy Ghost in preparation for death and 
being visited by divine consolations ; Ven. John 
Roberts, the Benedictine, reconciling a felon 
to Christ's Church beneath Tyburn gallows ; 
and Ven. Oliver Plunket, Primate of All Ireland, 
administering the Sacrament of Confirmation 
to his hunted sheep on the mountain side. 

(2) In the CORPORAL WORKS OF MERCY, 
Margaret Ward is shown Visiting the Im- 
prisoned." Under the words ' Clothing the 
Naked," we see Ven. Nicholas Horner, a tailor, 
of Smithfield, engaged on a jerkin for a priest at 
the moment when the door opens and an officer 
of the law comes forward to arrest him. In 
another scene, Ven. Anne Lyne stands erect on 
the fatal cart beneath Tyburn Tree for having 
harboured a priest. Fulfilling the precept of 
" Visiting the Sick," Ven. John Roberts is seen 
entering a plague-stricken house. In the two 
next medallions Margaret Clement is " Feeding 
the Hungry," and compassionate onlookers 
" Give Drink to the Thirsty " by offering a cup 
of wine to Ven. Edward Morgan on the way to 
the gallows. The last shows Dona Luisa de 



\ 




Cfje IpreDictton of Cpfautn 
Contient 

Ibere <3re0org (Bunne, a venerable priest 
conte60ina Cbvist before bi0 jufcges, 
preDictetb tbat one oag a religions bouse 
sball be foimfcefc at ^bnrn in bononr of 
tbe 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 89 

Carvajal receiving the relics of Ven. John 
Roberts and Ven. Thomas Somers, which 
noble Spaniards have rescued in order to give 
them honourable burial. 

Another medallion in this window depicts 
the crowning by Our Lord in Heaven of His 
Martyrs, and beneath is " The Prediction of 
Tyburn Convent." The venerable Confessor 
of the Faith, Father Gregory Gunne, brought 
before the judges on the 8th June, 1585, is shown 
making his famous prophecy that one day a reli- 
gious house would be established at Tyburn. 
Just above the heads of his judges a glimpse is 
given of the actual Chapel of Exposition with two 
Nuns in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. 

PAINTINGS. 

BENEDICTINE APOSTLES AND MAR- 
TYRS OF ENGLAND. The Holy Patriarch of 
Western Monks is surrounded by ten of his 
most illustrious sons, among whom Ven. Oliver 
Plunket has been included, perhaps on the 
probability that he was a Benedictine Oblate as 
some maintain, but principally because his 
relics are preserved at Downside Abbey. He is 
rightly associated with seven other glorious 
Tyburn Martyrs : John Roberts, Maurus 
Scot, Alban Roe, George Gervase, Thomas 

G 



9 o THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

Pickering, Mark Barkworth, Philip Powel, all 
of whom the Church has declared Venerable. 
On each side of St. Benedict are two important 
figures, those of the Apostles of England St. 
Gregory the Great and St. Augustine of Canter- 
bury. Above is this inscription : * Ecce ego et 
pueri mei," " Behold, here am I and my child- 
ren," words most appropriate if we consider 
what the Benedictine Order has done for 
England, how many of its members died for the 
faith at Tyburn, and also that this painting is 
the work of a Benedictine, Dame Catherine of 
St. Bride's, and that it adorns the walls of a 
Convent where the Rule of St. Benedict is 
followed. 

THE MASS OF THE HOLY GHOST, 
painted by the Hon. Mrs. Bering. Here the 
Martyr, Blessed John Houghton, is seen eleva- 
ting the Sacred Host while at the same time the 
heavens open and the vision thus vouchsafed to 
him and the Community strengthen them for 
the cruel death they are preparing to face. 

FOUR ANCIENT PRINTS represent the 
same holy Carthusian Prior in the company of 
two others equally famous, Blessed Augustine 
Webster and Blessed Robert Lawrence, all of 
whom suffered on the 4th May, 1535. 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 91 

BLESSED EDMUND CAMPION'S por- 
trait is particularly beautiful. It was specially 
copied from the original at Rome, and besides 
its artistic worth, it is treasured by the Tyburn 
nuns as having been presented by His Em. 
Cardinal Vaughan to the Community during 
the first year of its residence here and only a 
few weeks before his death. 

Other portraits in the Oratory are those of 
VEN. OLIVER PLUNKET, which always 
arrests Irish visitors, BLESSED RICHARD 
REYNOLDS and BLESSED JOHN FISHER. 
That of VEN. PHILIP HOWARD, EARL OF 
ARUNDEL, is the gift of one of his descend- 
ants. Philip Howard died in prison, and the 
racking and other sufferings he endured for 
ten years won for him the title of Venerable, 
which he shares with his grandson, Ven. William 
Howard, executed in 1680 on Tower Hill. 

LIST OF RELICS OF THE MARTYRS 
KEPT IN THE ORATORY. 

(This list is made up to the year 1916). 

FIRST RELIQUARY. 

From the finger of Ven. John Roberts, 
Priest, O.S.B., martyred at Tyburn, Decem- 
ber loth, 1610. 



92 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

SECOND RELIQUARY. 

From the Corporal used by Ven. John Baptist 
Bullaker, O.F.M., at his last Mass and dipped 
in the blood of the said Martyr (Ven. J. B. 
Bullaker was martyred at Tyburn, October i2th, 
1642). From the bones of Ven. Ambrose Barlow, 
Priest, O.S.B., martyred at Lancaster, Septem- 
ber loth, 1641. 

From the bones of Ven. Thomas Somers, 
Secular Priest, martyred at Tyburn, December 
loth, 1610. 

From the bones of Ven. John Almond, Secular 
Priest, martyred at Tyburn, December 5th, 
1612. 

From the tibia of Ven. A. Francis Bell, O.F.M., 
martyred at Tyburn, nth December, 1643. 

From the Corporal dipped in the blood of 
Ven. Paul of St. Magdalen Heath, O.F.M., 
martyred at Tyburn, April lyth, 1643. 

From a linen cloth dipped in the blood of an 
English Martyr of whom God knows the name. 

N.B. This Reliquary contains also a few 
beads of the Rosary of Mary Stuart, Queen of 
Scots. 

THIRD RELIQUARY. 

Relic of Ven. Edmund Catherick, Priest, 
martyred at York, April i3th, 1642. 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 93 

From the rope with which Ven. Peter Wright, 
S.J., was hanged at Tyburn, May i9th, 1651. 

Of Ven. John Rockwood, Priest, martyred at 
York, April i3th, 1642. 

Of Ven. Francis Bell, O.F.M., martyred at 
Tyburn, December nth, 1643. 

From the body of Ven. Oliver Plunket, Arch- 
bishop of Armagh, martyred at Tyburn, July 
I5th, 1681. 

Blood of Ven. Philip Evans, S.J., Priest, 
martyred at Cardiff, July 22nd, 1679. 

Blood of Ven. Henry Heath (Paul of St. 
Magdalen), O.F.M., martyred at Tyburn, April 
i7th, 1643. 

From the lower jaw of Ven. Thomas White- 
bread, Provincial S.J., martyred at Tyburn, 
June 20th, 1679. 

From the lower jaw of Ven. William Andleby, 
Priest, martyred at York, July 4th, 1597. 

Blood of the five Jesuit Fathers martyred at 
Tyburn, Friday, June 2oth, 1679, VV. John 
Fenwick, John Gavan or Green, William Har- 
court, Antony Turner, Thomas Whitebread 
(these were victims of the infamous Titu:> 
Oates). 

Of Ven. Thomas Somers, Secular Priest, mar- 
tyred at Tyburn, December loth, 1610. 

From the heart of an English martyr which 



94 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

leaped out of the fire in which it was being con- 
sumed (probably Ven. Edward Morgan, Secular 
Priest, martyred at Tyburn, April 26th, 1642). 

From the blood-stained alb in which a Priest 
of the Holden family was martyred at the Altar 
at Chargley, in Lancashire. 

Ven. John Wall, O.F.M., Priest, martyred in 
Worcester, August 22nd, 1679. 

From the skin of an English martyr found 
beneath the Altar of the Benedictine Monastery 
at Douai. 

FOURTH RELIQUARY. 

Bone of the forearm of the Ven. Thomas 
Maxfield, Secular Priest, martyred at Tyburn, 
July ist, 1616. This relic was the gift of His 
Lordship the Bishop of Tuy, in Spain. 

Portion of linen and straw stained with the 
blood of the five Jesuit Martyrs (June 2Oth, 
1679). 

From the bones of Ven. Ambrose Barlow, 
O.S.B., martyred at Lancaster, Sept. loth, 1641, 

From corporal stained with the blood of Ven. 
Henry (Paul of St. Magdalen) Heath, O.F.M. 

From the corporal used by Ven. Thomas 
(John Baptist) Bullaker, O.F.M., at his last Mass 
and imbued with his blood. 

From the blood of a Martyr whose name God 
knows. 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 95 

From a muscle of Ven. John Lockwood, Priest, 
martyred at York, April i3th, 1642, aged 87. 

A vertebra cut through by the executioner of 
Ven. John Lockwood, P.M. 

Tape from round the coffin at Douai of Ven. 
John Southworth, martyred at Tyburn, June 
28th, 1654. 

In the same reliquary is a miniature of Ven. 
William Ward, Secular Priest, martyred at 
Tyburn, July 26th, 1641. 



Half of a corporal used by Blessed Edmund 
Campion and other holy Martyrs and Confessors 
during the persecution under Elizabeth. 



SOME NOTES ON TYBURN CONVENT 

THE Nuns of Tyburn are under the Rule 
of St. Benedict. Their Congregation is dedi- 
cated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, 
and was founded at Montmartre Mons Martyr- 
um which has become the Mount of the 
Sacred Heart. 

Tyburn Convent dates from 1903, the 
Nuns of Montmartre having been asked, on 
their arrival in England, by His Eminence 
Cardinal Vaughan to establish on the place 
formerly called Tyburn Field a Sanctuary 
in honour of the Sacred Heart and as a 
memorial of the 105 Martyrs priests, re- 
ligious of many Orders, laymen and women 
who, from 1535 to 1681, suffered at Tyburn in 
defence of the Catholic Faith and for their 
fidelity to the See of Peter. The Tyburn Nuns 
have the joy of thinking that this design of the 
Heart of Jesus had been foreseen more than 
three hundred years ago by a venerable con- 
fessor of the Faith, Father Gregory Gunne, who, 
dragged before the judges on June the 8th, 1585, 
publicly predicted a day would come when a 
Religious House would be erected at Tyburn. 
Now, close to the site where formerly stood 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 97 

the gallows, is the Altar of Sacrifice and the 
Blessed Sacrament is perpetually exposed. 

Tyburn draws daily many Catholics and 
even non- Catholics to the feet of the King of 
Martyrs. Moreover a triduum with special 
sermons is held every year preparatory to the 
Feast of the Blessed English Martyrs (May 4th) 
which is solemnly celebrated at Tyburn. 
Another triduum in honour of Blessed Cuthbert 
Mayne and Blessed Edmund Campion is held 
from November 2Qth to December ist. On the 
last Sunday in April the Walk from Newgate 
to Tyburn ' takes place when many hundreds 
of pilgrims come in devout procession along 
the once-time Way of Sorrows on which the 
Martyrs were dragged on hurdles. From March 
4th to March i2th, Tyburn is the centre of an 
annual Novena organized by the Guild of Our 
Lady of Ransom, for the conversion of England 
and of individuals. 

It has appeared very appropriate that the 
Divine Heart should be perpetually adored and 
should reign over the place where so many of 
His Martyrs had their hearts torn from their 
breasts after having been cut down while still 
breathing from the gibbet. It is the hope of all 
who know Tyburn and love the Sacred Heart 
that a worthy Sanctuary may here be built, to 



98 THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

replace the present temporary chapel, where 
the King of Martyrs may be adored for many 
generations in the Sacrament of His love and 
that from these humble beginnings Tyburn may 
become to England what Montmartre is to 

France. 

* * * * 

According to the end of their Congregation, 
the Tyburn Nuns, consecrated to the Heart of 
Jesus, unite themselves to the intentions of that 
Adorable Heart burning with zeal for the glory 
of the Most Holy Trinity and for the salvation 
of souls. They devote themselves to the Divine 
Praise and to the Adoration of the Blessed 
Sacrament and endeavour to obtain through 
the Sacred Heart of Jesus abundant graces for 
the Holy Church and all mankind. 

They are placed under the maternal Patron- 
age of the Blessed and Immaculate Virgin Mary. 
After the Blessed Virgin, the special protectress 
of their Congregation is St. Gertrude, the 
glorious Benedictine virgin, who so lovingly 
contemplated and magnificently glorified the 
treasures of the Heart of Jesus. 

The Nuns of this Order are called primarily 
to the contemplative life. It is in union with the 
Adorable Sacrifice of the Altar and in the in- 
effable treasures which flow from the daily 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 99 

reception of the Holy Eucharist that they find 
their greatest support. No work must be pre- 
ferred in the Congregation to the Work of God 
and the Eucharistic service. Every day, in union 
with the praises which the Heart of Jesus ad- 
dresses unceasingly to the Holy Trinity, they 
offer to God the sacrifice of praise so closely 
bound to the Sacrifice of the Altar. The Gre- 
gorian chant is always used for the singing at 
Mass and Divine Office. 

Night and day, before the Blessed Sacrament 
exposed, the Nuns offer their adorations in 
homage of honour, of praise and love, in gratitude 
and reparation, in supplication for the needs of 
the Holy Church, and for the extension of the 
Reign of the Sacred Heart throughout the 
world. 

The ideal of their life is that it should be a 
continual Opus Dei by striving after perfection 
by prayer, sacrifice and zeal to this great end 
marked by the Holy Rule : " Ut in omnibus 

y 

glorificetur Dens." 

If their white cowl symbolizes contemplation, 
eucharistic adoration and Divine Praise, the 
black habit, scapular and veil represent the 
poverty, penance and labour which they have 
likewise embraced. 

The Community may also employ itself in 



ioo THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE 

works of zeal, properly so called, such as 
eucharistic and liturgical works, retreats, in- 
struction of converts, provided these works be 
compatible with contemplative life and the 
enclosure. 

The Benedictine Congregation of the Sacred 
Heart of Jesus of Montmartre has this feature as 
yet rare among Benedictine Nuns of being under 
the government of a Superioress General. 

Every Convent of the Congregation contracts 
a special obligation of devotedness for the con- 
version or the religious progress of the country 
wherein it is established. Consequently the 
Convent of Tyburn is devoted and that by a 
special Vow to the great cause of the return 
of England to Catholic unity. Under the pro- 
tection of Our Lady and the Martyrs, the Nuns 
strive by prayer and penance to raise unceasingly 
towards the Sacred Heart of Jesus the great 
supplication which burst forth at the supreme 
moment from the heart of one of the most 
glorious heroes of Tyburn : " Jesus, convert 
England ! Jesus, have mercy on this Country ! ' 



The Sacred Heart in increasing the number 
of the Tyburn Community has already enabled it 
to make two foundations : one in 1909 at 




MARTYRS OF TYBURN roi 

Brussels on that hill of Koekelberg, where will 
stand the National Basilica erected by Belgium 
to the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ; the 
second in 1916 at Royston, in Herts. 



THE VOW MADE BY THE COMMUNITY 
OF TYBURN FOR THE CONVERSION OF 

ENGLAND. 

(Renewed Annually). 

O JESUS, Immortal King of Ages, Sover- 
eign of Nations, Who envelopeth all man- 
kind in the Love of Thy Divine Heart. 

Humbly prostrate before Thee, we present 
in our hearts, England, the land which Thou 
hast so much loved, and which we love, and we 
adore Thee as her Divine Redeemer. We re- 
member all the graces Thou hast lavished upon 
this Island, Thy Mother's Dowry, and we unite 
our thanksgivings to all those offered to Thee 
in past ages, and which will be eternally ad- 
dressed to Thee in Heaven by the Blessed 
Martyrs and all the other Saints of this Country. 

The cruel ravisher of souls has tried to draw 
from Thee this nation for ever ! How many 
tabernacles are empty ! How many souls have 
strayed away ! Thy Heart has been wounded ! 
We will labour to repair the offences done to 
Thee. 

Thou hast ever so loved this land ! . . . 
Thou ceasest not to call her with an infinite love. 
May she return at Thy merciful calling, may 



MARTYRS OF TYBURN 103 

she come back to the source of life, may she be 
Thy beloved daughter, faithful and devoted ! 
Full of power, she will repair her errors by 
making known the love of Thy Divine Heart 
wherever her vast empire extends ! 

O Jesus, we desire to hasten that happy day 
by prayer, adoration, penance and zeal. 

This Convent of Tyburn, devoted to the 
great ends of our religious family, has received 
as its own and most special mission that of 
representing England unceasingly before Thy 
Adorable Heart, and the Community has vowed 
itself to offer its adorations and prayers by 
night and day, in a special manner for England, 
and particularly for the return to the Holy 
Church of the children of this great nation, who 
are yet separated from the One True Fold. 
Lord Jesus, we renew to-day this Vow and this 
Offering, and we present them to Thy Sacred 
Heart through the Blessed Virgin Mary, our 
Holy Father St. Benedict, whose children brought 
the Faith to this Country and the glorious 
Martyrs who shed their blood at Tyburn. 

O Jesus, may the day soon come when all 
England shall sing : " Praise be to the Divine 
Heart through which salvation has come to us ! 
To Him be honour and glory for ever and ever. 
Amen." 



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